^W-fm M I . SI lo ■^^^ ^X tUe %^ttih^u^i ^ %; PRINCETON, N. J. ** \ Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund. we X ^>i*.^ '-ii' ■V^:'*^v:^w;4^V v».»*r- ^^^u^ ^<^ .S^/i:[^guA STEWART OF LOVEDALE THE LIFE OF JAMES STEWART, D.D., M.D. HON. F.R.G.S. BY / JAMES WELLS, D,D. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY NEW YORK CHICAGO PREFACE This book might have been fitly entitled The Life and Times of Dr. Stewart, for it records his influen- tial share in the enterprises which have made a new world of South and Central Africa. Several of the chapters are occupied with the great causes which Dr. Stewart espoused ; and they present his chief convictions in the form that seemed most likely to interest the many circles of young people in Great Britain and America who are now studying Foreign Missions, My heartiest thanks are due to many helpers, foremost among whom are Mrs. Stewart and John Stephen, Esq. I wish I could thank them all, one by one. I have drawn freely on the admirable In Memo- riani number of the Christian Express, which was edited, and to a large extent written, by Dr. Roberts of Lovedale. The Rev. J. M. Sloan, M.A., and Sir. A. R. Simp- son, M.D., have revised the proofs and made many helpful suggestions. THE CHIEF DATES IN THE LIFE OF DR. STEWART Born ...... Licensed as a Preacher Exploring in Central Africa . Graduated in Medicine and Married Began as Missionary at Lovedale Prospecting for the Gordon Memorial Mission Founded Blythswood . . . Originated Livingstonia In Nyasaland ..... The Expansion of Lovedale . Pioneering the East African Mission Lectured on Evangelistic Theology in Scotland Moderator of the General Assembly Delivered the Duff Lectures , Presided at First General Missionary Conference in South Africa .... 'And He Died' .... 1831 i860 1861-63 1866 1867 1870 1873 1874 1876-77 1878-90 1891-92 1892-93 1 899- 1 900 1902 1904 1905 CONTENTS CHAPTER I rAGB THE MAKING OF THE MISSIONARY .... I CHAPTER II THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT ..... 9 CHAPTER III THE STUDENT OF DIVINITY, 1855-1859 ... 17 CHAPTER IV THE PROBATIONER, 1860-1865 . . . .27 CHAPTER V THE GERM OF LIVINGSTONIA ..... 33 CHAPTER VI ON THE WAY ....... $8 CHAPTER VII FURTHER ON THE WAY ..... SO CHAPTER VIII THE COMPANION OF LIVINGSTONE .... 62 CHAPTER IX THE ZAMBESIAN, 1862-1863 ..... 81 vi STEWART OF LOVEDALE CHAPTER X FAGS THE STUDENT OF MEDICINE . . . . . 94 CHAPTER XI STEWART OF LOVEDALE, 1867-1874 . . . . lOI CHAPTER Xn THE FATHER OF BLYTHSWOOD, 1873-1880 . . . 112 CHAPTER XHI THE FOUNDER OF LIVINGSTONIA, 1874-1875 . . I23 CHAPTER XIV AT LIVINGSTONIA, 1876-1877 ..... 133 CHAPTER XV LIVINGSTONIA, YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY . . . I42 CHAPTER XVI THE ESSENTIAL ETHIOPIAN ..... 155 CHAPTER XVII THE MISSIONARY ...... 166 CHAPTER XVIII PREACHER AND PASTOR ..... 179 CHAPTER XIX THE EDUCATIONALIST ..... 187 CHAPTER XX THE AGRICULTURALIST . . . ' . 206 CONTENTS vii CHAPTER XXI PAGS THE CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRIES .... 215 CHAPTER XXn THE MEDICAL MISSIONARY ..... 222 CHAPTER XXIII THB PIONEER OF THE EAST AFRICAN MISSION, 189I-1892 . 23I CHAPTER XXIV THE CHAMPION OF MISSIONS ..... 242 CHAPTER XXV THE APOSTLE OF CIVILISATION .... 256 CHAPTER XXVI THB NATIVES AND THE EUROPEANS .... 270 CHAPTER XXVII ETHIOPIANISM ....... 287 CHAPTER XXVIII THE MODERATOR, 1899-I9OO ..... 3OO CHAPTER XXIX THE AUTHOR ....... 3I2 CHAPTER XXX THE CONVERTS ...... 317 CHAPTER XXXI SOUTH AFRICAN BY-PRODUCTS .... 327 viii STEWART OF LOVEDALE CHAPTER XXXII PAGB AT HOME ....••• 339 CHAPTER XXXIII SOMGXADA : THE MAN OF ACTION . . • • 35° CHAPTER XXXIV THE OPTIMIST . . . . . . 358 CHAPTER XXXV THE CLOSING YEARS, 1899-I905 . . . .3^7 CHAPTER XXXVI THE MAN : HIS OUTER LIFE . . . • . 37^ CHAPTER XXXVII THE MAN : HIS INNER LIFE ..... 3^7 CHAPTER XXXVIII APPRECIATIONS ...... 397 CHAPTER XXXIX LOVEDALE TO-DAY ...... 406 CHAPTER XL THE CENTRAL NATIVE COLLEGE , . . . 4II INDEX 417 ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece FACING I'AGE 95 PORTRAIT OF DR. STEWART . A NATIVE WITCH-DOCTOR PORTRAIT OF DR. STEWART, AGE 40^1 THE BEGINNING OF LOVEDALE J WAGON AND NATIVE HUTS , THE girls' SCHOOL AT LOVEDALE . THE ILALA AS RECONSTRUCTED AT THE NORTH END OF THE MURCHISON RAPIDS . A SCENE ON THE UPPER SHIRE LOVEDALE PUPIL-TEACHERS AT DRILL VILLAGE SCHOOL AT LOVEDALE GROUPS OF NATIVE GIRLS AT LOVEDALE THE LOVEDALE STAFF AND THEIR WIVES . THE MAIN AVENUE AT LOVEDALE , AFTERNOON WORK-PARTIES AT LOVEDALE . DOMIRA FARM AT LOVEDALE. INSIDE THE printers' SHOP, LOVEDALE b lOI 103 109 130 x86 189 192 196 206 210 213 215 X STEWART OF LOVEDALE FACING PAGE TECHNICAL BUILDING AT LOVEDALE . . . 217 INTERIOR OF TECHNICAL BUILDING AT LOVEDALE THE BRICKFIELD HOSPITAL AND DOCTOR'S HOUSE EDALE"! DR. MACVICAR AND HIS NATIVE ASSISTANTS AT LOVEDALE HOSPITAL ....... 227 DR. STEWART'S HORSE AT KIKDYU, AND BAOBAB TREE BLACK AND WHITE IN HARMONY : THE LOVEDALE BAND 235 LOVEDALE STUDENTS' CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION AND MISSION BAND ....... 243 THE principal's HOUSE, WITH GROUP OF LOVEDALE STUDENTS AND STAFF ON EMPIRE DAY . . . 256 GRODP OF HOUSE BOYS AT LOVEDALE . . . 259 FINGO WOMEN ....... 26I GIRLS AND BOYS ON PARADE, WITH NATIVE TEACHERS, AT LOVEDALE . . . . 267 THE NATIVE LAWS COMMISSION, OF WHICH DR. STEWART WAS A MEMBER ...... 276 OFFICES, BOOKSHOP, DORMITORIES, AND TEACHERS' HOUSE. ON THE LEFT IN THE BACKGROUND SANDILl'S KOP, THE BURIAL-PLACE OF DR. STEWART . . . 313 SENIOR NORMAL CLASS AT LOVEDALE . . . 32I A TRIBAL GROUP AT LOVEDALE — BECHUANAS . . 323 ILLUSTRATIONS xi FACING PAGE THE KINDERGARTEN CLASS AT LOVEDAI.E . . . 329 MRS. STEWART ...... 33^ LORD MILNER OPENING THE MUIRHEAD HALL, THE GIRLS' SCHOOL, LOVEDALE ...... 345 INTERIOR OF carpenters' SHOP AT LOVEDALE . . 353 THE NATIVES AS THEY ARE AT HOME"j [ . - .3^5 THE NATIVES WHEN CIVILISED J THE FIRST GENERAL MISSIONARY CONFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA, HELD AT JOHANNESBURG IN JULY I904 UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF DR. STEWART , . . 369 NATIVE CONVENTION AT DR. STEWART's GRAVE . . 376 the sketch of the monument to be erected at dk. Stewart's grave ..... 398 native convention at the proposed site of the interstate college, with sandill's kop in the background . . . . , . 4ii MAPS MAP OF THE ZAMBESI AND LAKE NYASA .... 60 MAP OF SOUTH EAST AFRICA ...... II4 STEWART OF LOVEDALE CHAPTER I THE MAKING OF THE MISSIONARY A Great Resolve — His Mother — His Father — The Disruption — Church-building — Youthful Religion — Parallel Experi- ences. ' Man's sociability of nature evinces itself ... by this one fact— the unspeakable delight he takes in biography.' — Carlyle. ' Youthful imaginations should be great picture-galleries and Valhallas of heroic souls. Lives of great men nourish the imagination more than the best novels.' — Professor Blacklegs ' Self-culture.' ' In books we find the dead living.' — Richard de Bury. ' One event is always the child of another, and we must not forget the genealogy.' — A Bechuana Chief. ' This man put his band to the plough and never looked back. ' — Epitaph in Exeter Cathedral. Sixty-two years ago a tall youth of fifteen was fol- lowing the plough in a field in Perthshire. His two horses came to a .standstill in mid-furrow, and he was not minded to urge them on. Leaning on the stilts of the plough, he began to brood over his future. What was it to be? The question flashed across his mind — 'Might I not make more of my life than by remaining here ? ' He straightened himself and said, ' God helping me, I will be a missionary.' That was the making of the man and the missionary. A 2 STEWART OF LOVEDALE His whole life lay in that deed, as the giant oak lies in the acorn. The divine call came to the Perthshire youth, as it came to Elisha, at the plough. In the days of His flesh it was Christ's way to call His apostles when busy at their daily toil. The aim of this chapter is to reveal the influences which secured that * I will ' : the following chapters will chronicle the results which flowed from it. On February 14, 1831, James Stewart was born in Edinburgh, at 5 South Charlotte Street, adjoining 136 Princes Street. Like most great and good men, he was largely mother-made. ' I well recall his mother's presence,' his cousin writes. ' She was the finest specimen of a noble woman I have ever seen, possessing in their highest development all the features of the great Norse race from which she came. She belonged to the Dudgeon sept of the Norsemen, and her family settled at Liberty Hall, near Gladsmuir in Haddingtonshire. She was a woman of much refinement, of great ability, and saintly character. To her he owed his innate love and appreciation of all that was beautiful and seemly.' His mother died when he was in his teens, and his father married a second time. After passing through a preparatory school, he was educated at the Edinburgh High School and at the Perth Academy. His birthplace, quite near Edinburgh Castle and Princes Street Gardens — one of the fairest spots on earth — probably exerted a subtle influence over his tastes. As he sauntered — we should rather say, hurried, for he seems never to have sauntered any- where— along Princes Street to school, he had around him beauty in the lap of grandeur. His sur- FATHER AND MOTHER 3 roundings, we may believe, fostered both his piety and his patriotism, and also helped to develop that keen sense of natural beauty which distinguished him through life. The scenery he gazes upon every day often rouses and lights up the spirit of a boy. His father, a successful cab proprietor in Edin- burgh, became tenant, about 1842, of Pictstonhill, a farm between Scone and Perth. He was one of six stalwart brothers who were born at Dull in Perthshire. ' He was ' — this from James Stewart's cousin — 'a deeply religious man, and his prayers at family worship were never to be forgotten for reverence and fervour. His attendance at divine worship was unbroken, and when he was dying, he had to be taken to church to partake of his last communion. To him James owed his physical manliness, his strong will, his grave dignity and graciousness, and his attention to attire. Father and son, too, had the same largeness of heart towards the suffering, the oppressed, and the fallen.' In the best sense, James Stewart was well born. It is true that he who lives a noble life has no need of ancestors ; but it is also true that he who has noble ancestors is the most likely to live a noble life. Though grace does not run in the blood, blood and tradition tell. James was in his thirteenth year at the Disruption.^ ' ' The Disruption ' is the name usually given to that deed by which, on May 18, 1843, four hundred and seventy ministers, along with many elders, members, and adherents of the Church of Scotland, severed (or disrupted) their connection with the State, and formed the Free Church of Scotland, in order to preserve the rights and liberties which they believed to be in harmony with the Word of God, the Standards of their Church, and the Statutes of the realm. Lord Cockburn calls it ' the most remarkable upheaval in Scotland since the Reformation,' and ' the most honourable fact for Scotland that its whole history supplies.' 4 STEWART OF LOVEDALE * Pictstonhill,' as his father was designated from the name of his farm, was an admirable representative of a class of elders to whom the Free Church of Scotland largely owed its spiritual power, and its achievements at home and abroad. Homes like his were splendid nurseries of living faith, lofty ideals, and self-sacrificing heroism. As the parish minister of Scone did not 'come out' in '43, Pictstonhill became the leader of the Free Church party in his district. He was the heart and soul of the movement, and his house was the gathering-place for the Free Church leaders. With- out the influence and liberality of his family the Free Church of Scone could not have been built. Divine service was held in his barnyard in summer, and in winter in the barn : both were thus conse- crated to the higher husbandry. The Lord's Supper was celebrated and several children were baptized in the barn. Andrew Bonar (then of Collace), Andrew Gray and John Milne of Perth, fervent evangelists, often preached there, and many were deeply im- pressed. As old people said long afterwards, the Pictstonhill meetings were ' the talk o' the hale country-side.' These Disruption experiences were fitted to draw forth the generous chivalry of a thoughtful boy. James held the candle in the barn when the preacher read the Bible. When he preached for the first time in Scone, an old woman said 'the last time I saw him, he was juist a hafflin' laddie, and a cannel-stick.' When the first Free Church was built at Scone, ' Pictstonhill' provided the sand, and also carted all the stones gratis. At first they had to be brought from a distance, as the proprietor would not allow the Free Church people to use a neighbouring quarry. HIS INTELLECTUAL BIRTHTIME s At last he consented, and the piebald church — the stones being of different colours — was a memorial of the fluctuating feelings of Disruption days. James gave his school holidays to the work of carting the stones. He was thus from his boyhood a light- bearer, a builder, and an extender of Christ's Church. In token of their gratitude to ' Pictstonhill,' the villagers in 1844 insisted on reaping his harvest-fields without hire. As the Free Church congregation was for some time without a pastor, Mr. Stewart got his brother Charles, the Free Church minister of Kirkmichael, to come, not only to preach, but also to visit the poor, the feeble, and the sick. James used to carry a lame brother on his back to church and Sabbath-school — a distance of about half a mile. Even then he was, as all through life, a chivalrous helper of the weak. He seems to have had an early intellectual birth- time, for he was a great reader in his boyhood and had a very tenacious memory. He often strolled among the hills on his father's farm and read for hours his favourite authors — Plutarch, Shakespeare, Milton, and Browning. Like most believing Scotsmen, Stewart was not prone to reveal by speech his deepest religious experiences. It seems that he yielded early and gladly to the holy influences playing upon him, and that his Christian life resembled the healthy plants he loved and understood, which quietly absorb from climate and atmosphere the many mystic forces which they mould into things of use and beauty. A Puritan Father on soul-winning says, ' God never gives to one man a whole soul.' The home life and 6 STEWART OF LOVEDALE church life around him were well fitted to win an ingenuous boy. The excellences of father and mother were very manifestly and not unequally re- produced in the leal-hearted lad. Twice was he their son — in soul as in body. They both lived in him, and through him they are still serving Christ's Church, and shall serve coming generations. It is said that James was also deeply influenced by a devoted invalid lady who had a Bible-class at her house. So far as we can learn, young Stewart seems to have escaped that * fever of adolescence ' which often attends the first struggles between the excited boy and the emerging man. Those who knew him then discovered no trace of that wayward assertion of native force, which one of its victims likens to ' the bursting of the flower-pot by the oak sapling.' Double-moated by grace in the best of homes, he was early taught to tame his heart, and, so it seems, he was kept from those things which poison the springs of life, and impoverish one's powers for service. His early life is all of a piece with the great resolve he made as he leant on his plough. That explains all that he has done, or thought, or become. He was born and brought up in the ' moral purple.' One day, when carrying a gun, as he often did, he suddenly stopt, lifted up his head with an energetic gesture, and said to his cousin, 'Jim, I shall never be satisfied till I am in Africa with a Bible in my pocket, and a rifle on my shoulder to supply my wants.' In the heart of Africa this youthful desire was often fulfilled to the letter. Only one statement about his boyish experiences has been found among his papers. In it he says : 'Though from my earliest years I meant to go HIS BOYISH IDEAL 7 abroad, I cannot say that missionary work attracted me at first. The boy's ideal firmly fixed and con- stantly recurring, was to lead an expedition in some unexplored region. That was probably nothing more than the mere restlessness of race-instinct in a boy half Norse on his mother's side, if also half Celt on the other. As a lad I had to work with horses on the farm. I have often been thankful for that training. The nature of the work gave me plenty of time to think, and when a certain change came, my mind also turned to missions. This interest con- tinued, though with varying force.' Arthur Helps says: 'The mill-streams that turn the clappers of the world arise in solitary places.' The explorer of a great river usually begins at the sea and mounts to the source. Easier and more fascinating is the task of the biographer and the sympathetic reader, for they begin at the fountain- head and move downwards along the growing current. We have located the source of a fruitful stream in the sunlit uplands of a happy boyhood, and in the corner of a field.^ That field was as memorable a spot to Stewart as was to Paul the hillock near Damascus, where he saw the heavenly vision and heard the heavenly voice. During his furloughs he revisited that birthplace of his great resolve, and he sometimes told the story to his intimate friends. The resolve then formed was the work of a moment.^ But could we explore the mysterious * TJie exact spot is in the angle between the highway from Perth to Scone and the road up to the Carse of Gowrie. ' Robert Burns had an exactly parallel experience, which he presents to us, not in the daylight of fact, but in the limelight of fancy. He says : ' The genius of my country found me, as Elijah found 8 STEWART OF LOVEDALE origins and growths in the unfathomable depths of the sub-conscious soul, we should probably discover that the suddenness of such a resolve lies only in the first manifestation of the inner life, and that in the moment of decision, long-continued processes are then brought, not to being, but to full consciousness. Be that as it may, autobiography and biography teem with instances of men and women of all classes, ages, and creeds, who in a moment formed the choice which made them all they afterwards became. Thus in his teens, James Stewart put his hand to Christ's plough. Never looking back, he continued to draw straight and deep furrows in the veldt of heathenism, till his last call found him in the great field of his lifelong labours. This rare constancy was due to his home-bred, deep, definite, and un- changing Evangelical convictions; and the resulting unity of his life is likely to gratify the reader as it has gratified the biographer. Elisha, at the plough, and threw his inspiring mantle over me.' Carlyle leads us to believe that he could have pointed out the very flagstone in Leith Walk where, one sultry Dogday, he experienced what he calls his 'spiritual new birth,' and ' baphometic fire-baptism.' CHAPTER II THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT In Edinburgh, 1850-52 and 1854-55. In St. Andrews, 1852-54. His appearance — His Studies — Many-sidedness — His Tutor- ship— His Fellow-students — Testimonies of Dr. Wallace and Dr. Robertson. 'Res non verba' (Things not words). — Lttiher's motto. ' The artist is known by his self-limitation.' — Tennyson. ' Aien Arisfeuein' (Ever to be the best). — Motto of St. Andrews Uni- versity. Stewart matriculated first in the University of Adversity. Serious financial losses constrained his father to quit his farm about 1847, and begin life anew in Edinburgh on the old lines. James man- fully did his best to aid the family in their efforts, which proved successful. During three or four years he had a business training, which was very useful to him in after life when he had so much to do with business and business men. His experi- ences during those strenuous days would also deepen that keen sympathy with the struggling, which was a part of his inheritance from father and mother. Such a strain, nobly borne, would add strength to his unusual powers of resolve and self-reliance. Like many Scottish students, he supported himself ' by private tutoring. y lo STEWART OF LOVEDALE He did not enter the Edinburgh University till his twentieth year. I have failed to glean any information about his studies in Edinburgh, except that he did not take the classes in the usual order, and that he was at the same time at business. After two sessions there, his uncle, the Rev. Charles Stewart, died, and as James was tutor to his cousins, he removed with his aunt to St. Andrews, his ideal of a University town. He then had that bearing of distinction which remained with him through life. In face and form he carried with him everywhere, to borrow Bacon's phrase, *a letter of perpetual recommendation.' There was not about him a particle of affectation. Broad-shouldered, upright as a palm, tall — he was six feet two inches without his shoes and propor- tioned well — with a vigorous sweep and stride, his frame seemed to be endowed equally with strength, agility, and gracefulness.^ He had a peculiar step, like that of a stag or a Red Indian hunter. I re- member vividly the first time I saw him, as he was striding across the college quadrangle. I thought of Homer's Ajax as he moved on the battlefield. He attracted attention, and people would turn round and look at him after he had passed in the street. Once seen, he was not likely to be forgotten or mistaken for any other man. In respect of dress, the African natives might justly have given him the title which they gave to his friend Coillard — 'the father of neatness.' ^ ^ The ' portrait ' in this and the following chapter is partly from personal knowledge, as during one session I was a fellow-student with him, but chiefly from information supplied by his fellow-students. * On his return to London from one of his African expeditions, he was walking in the Strand, unconscious of the fact that he was still wearing his African sun-helmet. A city Arab came alongside of him, THE TRUE IDEA OF CULTURE ii One writes : ' He changed less than most men dur- ing his lifetime. Even in face and figure he continued very much the man he was in those student days.' Another writes : * His appearance then recalled to me the words applied to the youthful David, King of Israel — " He was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to." ' Another thought, however, that he resembled King Saul rather than David. ' He was greatly beloved in his youth. There was something extremely attractive in his whole demeanour, and there was a vein of humour in his conversation which endeared him to us all.' He had excellent intellectual gifts. His was a nimble and vigorous mind that quickly reached the heart of a subject. But he was not a distinguished student in the academic sense. The lore of the University had no exclusive attractions for him. ' Man lives for culture,' says Goethe, ' not for what he can accomplish, but for what can be accomplished in him.' Stewart's conception of culture was totally opposed to that, while he was equally opposed to the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of bread and butter. With him knowledge was an instrument and a practical power, not a luxury or an adornment, and the crown of all study was character and service. Moreover, even when as a boy he roamed with a gun over his father's farm, his heart was set on and tried to keep step with him. The odd procession arrested the attention of many, among whom was another Arab, who stood gazing at the sun-tanned, travel-stained giant. The boy by Stewart's side, with upturned thumb, pointed over his shoulder and shouted to his mate, in a tone of mock solemnity, ' I say, George, he grow'd.' Stewart then discovered the reason why so many eyes were turned to him, and disappeared in the nearest hatter's shop. This was one of the many diverting stories he told against himself. 12 STEWART OF LOVED ALE Africa, and during the whole of his student days he accepted the self-limitations which such a sphere imposed. Often when expounding his favourite text, 'Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God,' he used to emphasise the difference between the Indian and the African, and to point out that Ethiopia had no ancient and highly organised systems of caste and belief to resist the solvent power of Christian truth. She was a simple, un- tutored savage, who needed plain, practical teaching, and who was likely to turn to God far sooner than India would do. He thus valued a university educa- tion only, or chiefly, in so far as it could fit him for his chosen sphere. He could not therefore live only or chiefly in the world of books, as scholarship did not supply an adequate occupation for all his energies. On the altar of Ethiopia he was willing to offer up much which was precious to the prizeman. He took then, and continued to take through life, an eager interest in every department of knowledge. For some time he was examiner in Mental Philo- sophy for the University of South Africa, and his books reveal a wide range of study. He came early under the spell of Science, and while a student wrote several articles for magazines on semi-scientific themes, and was a member of the literary societies. His interests were many-sided, and he eagerly gathered general information. The whole palace of enchanted thought was open to him. He was an enthusiastic student of Chemistry, Botany, Agri- culture, and the common ways of men. He thus matriculated and graduated in the larger university of the World and Life. With him the Art of Arts was to live well and work well. HIS MISSIONARY ZEAL 13 His leanings then, as through life, were decidedly conservative. This might be partly due to his revered father and mother. He had characteristic enthusiasm of conviction, great courage, and energy of statement. He was decidedly opposed to theo- retical voluntaryism in the relations between Church and State. No patience had he with barren specula- tions, and he could not endure any theology which tended to impoverish a man's humanity. His studies did not quench his missionary zeal, for, at St. Andrews, he inoculated with it one of his cousins and pupils, James Stewart, C.E., who resigned a lucrative post in the Covenanted Service in India, that, at first as an unpaid volunteer, he might aid the Livingstonia Mission. This Mr. Stewart laid out Blantyre, and planned and made part of the Stevenson Road, the great highway of two hundred and fifty-four miles between Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. He was a most attractive Christian gentleman, and his early death was a great bereave- ment to Central Africa. Dr. George Wallace, lately of Hamilton, a fellow- student with Stewart both at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, thus writes about the St. Andrews days : ' Clear and distinct above all other impressions he made on me, was the practical cast of his mind. He was a man of deeds, who valued only what could be embodied in actions. His tastes were scientific rather than classical or mathematical. At that time there was little in the university studies to interest and employ one whose leanings were towards natural science. Hence, though his ability was well marked in the classes attended by him, he never took the place in them which he could easily have taken, if he had turned his whole energy in that direction. It 14 STEWART OF LOVEDALE seemed as if the idea had taken possession of him that the life for him was not one for which the university curriculum was the best preparation. Even then it was manifest that he would not follow the trodden ways of life, but would strike out some path for himself.' Here is an appreciation of Stewart, by another fellow-student at St. Andrews, the Rev. Dr. Robertson of Whittinghame : — * Some of the careers of my fellow-students have been very unexpected, some pathetic from the strange mingling in them of success and failure. But of them all, I have often thought that the life of James Stewart has been that by which the best and deepest mark has been made on the world and its history. I could not have fore- told this or anticipated it during our college course. We are apt at that stage of our lives to put undue value on the figure men make in class examinations. We do not yet know how many other qualities are needed for effectiveness in life, besides those by which college prizes are won. James Stewart was not a winner of college prizes. He took only moderate and respectable positions in his classes. This may have been due to his being considerably older than most of us, less keen in regard to class competitions, and already interested more in the work of life. He had no aloofness either from our class studies, or from our student fellowships ; but one felt that there was much more in the man than was put into college study. There was a constant strong purposefulness in his character. He was genial — even humorous ; a cheery smile generally on his countenance ; but there was a reserve of strength and courage, which, one feels now, waited for some great occasions to call it forth. He was, first and foremost, a man of action, A LEADER OF MEN 15 rather than a student. While some of us plunged into our class work as if it were all we had to think of, everything he did, was, I believe, a conscious preparation for life. I recollect being struck by large coloured drawings of botanical subjects he showed me — a study which, I understood, he was carrying on privately in view of possibly choosing a missionary career. Though he took no prominent place in his classes, we felt him to be a natural leader of men. He was tall and strong of frame, with fair hair, ruddy complexion, aquiline nose, and I never saw any one to whom the epithet " eagle-eyed " more obviously belonged. One little memory I have of him which is quite in character. We had a literary society which met for some hours of debate and fellowship on Saturday evenings. One wintry night, snow lay on the ground, and the streets were icy. As we came downstairs at the end of our meeting, the whisper went round that students of a rival society had arranged to snowball us severely and make it impossible for us to get out from the college court by the narrow door under the old steeple. The enemy had indeed arranged themselves all round outside, with piles of hard snowballs ready for use at their feet. They were able to make it hot for those who came to the doorway. There was a moment's halt, and I well remember the voice of James Stewart sounding decisively in the dark, ' Let every man provide himself with two snowballs.' We instantly charged, and sallying forth with him as leader, in a few seconds of time had possessed ourselves of the heaps of snowballs prepared by our adversaries, and were pelting them as they fled. ' I have fewer recollections of Stewart then than of some others of my fellow-students. As he lived 1 6 STEWART OF LOVEDALE with his aunt, we did not haunt one another's rooms and talk as students are wont to do. At the end of our course in Arts we were separated. Those of us who had associated intimately together, had the ministry in view as our future profession. The larger number of us being of the Free Church, went to study in the New College, Edinburgh, while the smaller number remained at St. Andrews, and went through St Mary's College under Principal Tulloch. I regret the loss of that fellowship, which was a good and helpful one. We were as a company the poorer for this break-up. And, so separate are men kept in their careers by being in different church organisa- tions, we seldom met as years went on, and knew of one another's course of life only in a vague and irregular fashion. But such is the linking together of free congenial souls in that magic time of college life, such is the endurance of these early friendships, that any chance meeting in all the life after finds us still the same to one another in genial openness and frank affectionateness. I afterwards heard that Africa had cast its spell upon James Stewart, or perhaps it should be said, that he felt Africa to be the sphere of action for which he was fitted, that from Africa came the call for such powers as he was conscious of — powers of hardihood and endurance, with stern joy in committing himself to the toils and hazards needed there for humanity's sake. ... I still think that of all the men I knew in the United College at St. Andrews, he has made the best and deepest mark on the world. Though he was preacher and doctor both, I always thought of him rather with the kind of admiration with which a home-staying student thinks of a soldier, an explorer, or man of difficult affairs.' CHAPTER III THE STUDENT OF DIVINITY, 1855-1859 His Individuality — His Stepmother— His Comrades— His Club — 'Stewart Africanus' — At Eriangen — The Cotton Famine — His first two Books. • Ideals are prophesies that work out their own fulfilment.' — Bishop Lightfoot. ' Who climbs keeps one foot firm on fact Ere hazarding the next step.' — Browning. ' Pectus facit theologum ' (The heart makes the theologian). — Amesius. ( The motto of Tholuck and Neander. ) Stewart took the ordinary course of four sessions in the New College, Edinburgh, the Divinity Hall of the Free Church of Scotland. His relation to his studies there was the same as it had been in the Universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. His energies, not confined within the customary bounds, overflowed upon the adjoining fields of knowledge. So far as is known, he did not call any of his pro- fessors * my master,' in the classical, exclusive and rich sense of that term. But in the middle of his Divinity course he found his master and lifelong hero. Here is the image of Stewart which lives in the memories of his surviving fellow-students. — Healthy in body, mind, and soul, he had a passion for fact and reality. Though a zealous idealist, he did not B i8 STEWART OF LOVEDALE look at present things through the stained glass of the imagination. He was a good, whole-hearted, practical Christian man, and free from every petty- feeling. Sometimes he seemed to be over-masterful, and he did not always moderate his language in conference and controversy. On the Godward side he had an exacting conscience, and sternly took himself to task for his failings. The devout life was diligently cultivated, and he cherished an intense aversion to a wooden orthodoxy, and a tottering morality in alliance with a Christian profession. He wished a thoroughly practical theology which he could transmit to the heathen, and which would move him to transmit it. In every part of his life he was profoundly Christian. ' I have an impression,' one of his fellow-students writes, ' of his manly, forcible, upright, and generous Christian character.' His social nature — ' which needed a little develop- ment'— was enriched in two directions. As his father had died during his university course, for some years he lived with his stepmother, to whom he was warmly attached. The comradeship of these two was greatly admired. It was like the relation of an affectionate elder sister to a devoted younger brother. The care of her was a sacred duty to him, and not till he had laid her body in the grave, could he say, ' I am now free to go to Africa.' ' I cannot tell you,' he then wrote, ' how this has affected me. What a world of affection that woman lavished upon me. Now I can never repay her. My interest in things has suddenly diminished within the last few hours.' He adds — ' I had formed what, no doubt, was a rash resolution, not to go abroad while she lived. . . . This event removed my self-made diffi- culty and set me strangely free, as I had then A STEPMOTHER 19 neither father nor mother, sister nor brother alive, though of the latter there were at one time five.' Some time after the death of his stepmother, writing to an intimate friend, he said, 'For the first few weeks I dozed over the fire and did nothing. I hardly thought that a man in ordinary tolerable health could be so stupefied with one stroke as to forget half the things he had to do, and only half do what remained. ... I was asked to come here (Selkirk) and was glad to go where I must work. It will be no fault of mine, I hope, if our friendship is not perpetuated. I feel more every day the need of holding to those old friends for whom I care, and for whom those who are no longer amongst us really cared, so let us understand that I wish the bond to be made, if possible, stronger. You say " God has had some wise end in view." I believe He has, though I do not yet understand it. You must not think I am complaining. I have felt as never in my life before that it is good that a man should suffer, yet these poor hearts of ours will have their say. I had often wished for a few years in which to have repaid my mother for all her surprising love. In the last letter I wrote to her from Paris, I told her of this. I wanted to provide a quiet home for her, but Despite all my infirmity of temper, some- times, too often alas, overcoming me, I loved my mother and she knew it. I loved her as if she had been my own mother, but it seems to me I did not love her half enough, and God has sent His rebuke. I must wait therefore till I meet her in Heaven, and tell her of my repentance on earth after she left it. It seems also that I have a tie now there, and a real piece of work to be done when I get there, that I never had before.' 20 STEWART OF LOVEDALE To Free Church students of Divinity, the New College was their Alma Mater. The smaller number was favourable to comradeship, and unity of convic- tion and aims created an added sense of brother- hood. In such an atmosphere are formed the friendships which last throughout life and enrich it. Stewart took a prominent part in the theological and missionary societies of the New College, of which he was an affectionate alumnus. He had even then the mysterious power of leadership and a fertile initiative. Several of his St. Andrews fellow- students were with him at the New College. He formed them into the S.A.SC. — the St. Andrews Students' Club, with the St. Andrew's Cross for their symbol. They had a very beautiful coat of arms with two mottoes : ' One in Christ ' (in Greek), and 'To lose a friend is the greatest of losses' (in Latin). By frequent correspondence, friendship was fostered among the clubmen after they had left Edinburgh, and they all agreed to do their utmost to support the mission to which the founder of their club had devoted his life. Stewart carefully kept these memories alive, for, like the fuel in the hearth, they preserved and radiated upon him the sunshine of the past. In after days, his memory fondly reverted to this society, and he maintained a fraternal correspond- ence with several of its members, and was a loyal and devoted friend. They met once a week in each other's rooms, had a devotional meeting every Saturday evening, and engaged in Home Mission work. Stewart wrote a booklet to be circulated by the members. It was based upon the story of Felix, and entitled Thoughts on an Ancient Narrative^ or, Circumstances and the AN EPOCH-MAKING IMPULSE 21 SouPs Salvation. With him, as with Strafford, thorough was his motto in all he did. This booklet is carefully written, closely reasoned, and well fitted for its purpose. In 1857 he received his second great epoch- making impulse. The first came to him between the stilts of the plough ; the second, from the pages of a book. The Rev. J. Macknight of Whit- burn writes: 'One Saturday afternoon in 1857 I had a walk in the country with James Stewart. He then told me that he had just read Livingstone's travels. He was so fascinated with the book that he was busy tabulating its contents. Chapter i. in his notes was headed " Dr. Livingstone as a Botanist," and in the later chapters he dealt with Livingstone as a zoologist — a geologist — a medical man — an explorer — a missionary — and a Christian. Under the several heads he had summed up quite an array of references, giving the subject and the page, Livingstone's many-sidedness had amazed him, also the extraordinary wisdom and clearness with which every topic was handled, and especially the new world of Africa which just then was dawning upon us. It would have required a prophet to foretell the issue of young Stewart's enthusiasm, but looking back to it now, across all that he has since done and been, v/e can see that he had already found his hero and his function. If that old notebook of his can be traced, it should be deposited in some missionary museum, as a sacred memorial of our honoured friend.' After this, ' long Stewart ' — as he was called in the easy colloquial of the college, to distinguish him from another whose name was ' short Stuart ' — was known as ' Africa Stewart ' or ' Stewart /y 22 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Africanus.' He was cherishing visions and dream- ing dreams about missions in the heart of Africa. Some were disposed to regard him as a dreamer and a visionary. They could not know that the first love of his boyhood had then become a well-defined, overmastering passion, which would create for him one of the most notable missionary careers of the century. Dr. Wallace thus recalls these days : * Along with some others and myself he spent part of the summer session of 1858 at the University of Erlangen,^ The German students sampled us Scotchers and labelled us. He was known as " der Schotte mit dem grossen Stock " (the Scotchman with the big stick). At that time he sported a walking-stick of formidable size, which rather astonished the Germans. They gave a more correct picture of the man than they knew. He was essentially a born traveller and a pioneer, a man of strong independence and firm resolution, leaning on his own stick, and that a pretty sturdy one, pre- pared to encounter difficulties and to surmount them. For such a role he was well fitted both by bodily physique and mental courage. He knew that he had in himself a reserve of fitness and strength, which he had a right to use, which\t was in fact his duty to use for the glory of God and the good of mankind. There was something in him vvhich made one feel that, however unreasonable his aim might seem to be, he himself must have good reasons for it, and that nothing on his part would be lacking to * In Bavaria, then one of the most famous schools of theology, as among its professors were Delitzsch, Von Hofmann, Thomasius, Ebrard and Heizog. Stewart knew German well and could converse in it. NEW AFRICAN COTTON-FIELDS 23 bring about a successful issue. Let no one, however, suppose that he was moved by the mere love of adventure or by the desire to do something uncom- mon, so that he might get credit for originality. The springs of action in his soul were connected with a higher source. He sought to hear the voice of God calling him to duty. Those who knew him best knew how earnestly he longed to serve God in any sphere to which he might be called. He did not wear his religion on his sleeve where all could see it, but he hid the word of God in his heart that he might be ready for obedience in the spirit of the Apostle Paul when he asked, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? " ' About the time when he formed the resolve to do his utmost to plant a mission in the districts opened up by Livingstone, his sympathies were drawn forth to the myriads of mill-workers in England who were suffering from the cotton famine caused by the war in the United States. As he had embraced with his whole heart the idea of industrial missions, he had the hope that he might establish cotton-fields in the valleys of the Zambesi and the Shir^, and thus help to secure work and bread for the starving at home. This hope strengthened his resolution to visit these regions. He afterwards discovered that that part of Africa was admirably suited for the better varieties of the cotton-plant, but that it was impossible to cultivate it as long as slave-raiding lasted. ' More than most men I have known,' Dr. Wallace writes, ' he was characterised by decision and self- reliance. He seemed to be always looking ahead, and to know what he meant to be at. It was some- times disconcerting, in the course of that kind of talk in which things are said with little meaning, to 24 STEWART OF LOVEDALE be pulled up by him with such questions as, " What do you mean by that ? " or, " What do you intend to accomplish thereby?" His self-reliance was, of course, of the nature indicated by the Apostle Paul, when he says, " Our sufficiency is of God." " I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Sometimes it was almost provoking to find him so sure of himself, especially when one was not pre- pared to adopt his views. For in truth he was not always disposed to allow to others the same independence of judgment which he claimed for himself. He was so absorbed in looking at things from his own point of view as scarcely to realise that there was another point of view. But this was part of the strength of the man, and enabled him to accom- plish a life work equalled by few, though I believe it sometimes deprived him of the help which others would have given as far as they were able, though they could not go as far as he expected.' When describing his New College days, Stewart wrote, ' I had also travelled a good deal, first, at my own expense, and a second time through a great part of Europe, including Greece and Turkey, with two young Cambridge students.' One of these writes : ' We had the greatest regard for him and a very vivid recollection of his sincerity, kindness, and abilities. I have always followed his dis- tinguished and self-sacrificing career with the greatest interest' It is fitting here to notice two books by James Stewart, as they were the fruitage of his by-studies while a student. One is a quarto and undated. Its title is : A Synopsis of Structural and Physiological Botany, presenting an outline of the Forms and Func- tions of Vegetable Life. It has as its motto these A LOVER OF BOTANY 25 words : ' There are many, even among the educated classes, who are in the habit of regarding the botanist as a dealer in barbarous Latin names, as a man who plucks flowers, names them, dries them, and wraps them up in paper, and whose whole wisdom is ex- pended in the determination and classification of this ingeniously collected hay.' ( The Plafit, a Biography, by Schleiden.) His introduction closes with these words : ' Above all, we shall be more frequently reminded, not less by the tiniest moss and spreading lichen, than by the magnificent palm, and still mightier pine, of the power, the wisdom, and the benevolence of the Great Creator.' The other book is a folio, with the title Botanical Diagra^ns, illustrating the elementary tissues, nutri- tive organs, inflorescence, and general classification. It bears the date of 1857. He was then half-way through his theological studies. Its motto is, ' Matter is made for mind, and mind for truth and God.' In the introduction he says : ' Much shall have been gained if any by the examination of these sheets may be enabled to look with more intelli- gence or fresh pleasure on the matter of the vege- table world, moulded as it is into so many forms of varied beauty by the finger of the Almighty.' Both are published by Reynolds, London, and only one bears the name of James Stewart. They show wide reading, and among the authorities quoted are many French and German authors. The pictures are very numerous, artistically drawn, and beautifully coloured. They illustrate all the parts of plant life. The cost of producing these volumes must have been great. They were evidently a labour of love, and they were used as text-books in Scottish schools and colleges for many years. One of them at 26 STEWART OF LOVEDALE least was sanctioned by the Board of Education for use in their schools. James Stewart, like Carey, added to the love of Christ the love of all things beautiful in God's world. He revelled in the poetry of earth, sea, and sky, adoring God, the Father Almighty, 'the Poet of heaven and earth.* CHAPTER IV THE PROBATIONER, i860- 1 865 The Theological Course— A 'Rale Man'— In the Pulpit— His Hearers — His Favourite Books. ' I can't feed people on stale bread. I have not dealt in missionary pastry only, but in the bread of life.' — Coillard. ' Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.' — iV. Faul to Timothy. Scottish Fresbyterianism demands a longer edu- cation for the Christian ministry than any other Church, ancient or modern, has done. The Free Church of Scotland from the first duly appreciated sacred learning, and appointed an ampler curriculum of study than has been adopted by any other Presby- terian denomination. Its students had to spend at least four years at the University, and then other four at the Divinity Hall. The students did not complain of these eight long years, for when it was proposed to shorten the Divinity course to three years, they petitioned against the change. If he pass the appointed examinations and trials, the Scottish student of Divinity, a few weeks after leaving the Hall, is ' licensed to preach the gospel.' He is then called a probationer, a licentiate, or a preacher. But James Stewart was never a probationer in the ordinary sense, for he was never on probation as 87 28 STEWART OF LOVEDALE a candidate for a pastoral charge. He was licensed early in i860, and the following five years were crowded with varied activities. During four of these five years he preached regularly in several congre- gations for periods ranging from one month to a year. From 1859 to 1861 and from 1864 to 1866 he took the full course of medical study. During two of these years he was also secretary in the Cardross case, in which the Church was brought into the Law Courts. He thus became acquainted with leading churchmen, and gained a knowledge of Civil and Church Law. The record of his activities in his probationer days is not yet complete, for in i860 and 1861 he originated the movement which secured the planting of Livingstonia, and between 1862 and 1864 he explored a large part of Central Africa. His appearance in the pulpit at once drew atten- tion and excited expectation. His style was what both his past and his future might lead us to expect — completely evangelical, very earnest, practical, and home-coming. ' I do not always fail,' he wrote, 'though I esteem myself rather a dry stick in the pulpit.' One writes : ' I have a lively recollection of his supplying, for one month, the pulpit of Dr. Bryden of Dunscore (Dumfriesshire) during the spring of i860. Mr. Stewart was a gentleman of great energy, being out in the morning by six o'clock, with his coat off and his shirt-sleeves turned up, and working like a Trojan, cutting out new walks round the Free Church. He had a fine presence, and was a good preacher with a style of his own, original and clear. To my mind, he then gave indications of future greatness.' THE YOUNG PREACHER 29 An old farmer in the parish used to tell this story, and then added, ' Ah ! but yon was a rale man.' He was also an assistant at Stirling, Innellan, Elgin, and, for two months, in Free St. George's, Edinburgh. In 1864, during a year, he occupied the pulpit of Free St. John's, Glasgow, as assistant to Dr. Rox- burgh, the successor of Dr. Chalmers. He must have had a wonderful power of impression, for some very aged people remember to this day his individualities and his texts. A correspondent can distinctly recall three of his sermons (after forty-four years) on the texts, ' Set your affection on things above,' ' Holiness to the Lord,' and ' Finally, brethren, be perfect' A minister who, as a boy in his * teens ' then worshipped in Free St. John's, Glasgow, writes: 'There was that in the personality of the man that compelled atten- ^ tion. While entirely loyal to the great evangelical truths, he brought to their handling what I can only characterise as a sort of breezy freshness that seemed to put new life into them. Admirable and stimulating as he was as a preacher, Mr. Stewart was even more stimulating as a teacher. The young folk in his Bible-class felt that they were in contact with a personality throbbing with power! Even then ' prophecies went before ' on him. In 1866 he had charge for six months of Union Free Church, Glasgow, which was then without a pastor. The Assessor for Glasgow writes : ' I have a very vivid recollection of him and his unique style of preaching. I should say that he was more of a teacher than a preacher. His teaching created in his hearers a desire for more and more. Many of the congregation would fain have put back the 30 STEWART OF LOVEDALE hands of the clock when he talked to them of the things concerning the King. ' He would have been unanimously called to the pastorate of the flock had he not told us that he must needs go and preach the gospel in Dark Africa. ' When about to leave, we had a farewell meeting and gave him several gifts, among which was a gun. He said that he would take it with him to Africa, but that he would never use it in self-defence. Kindness to the African was the only weapon he had ever used or would use, and it had always secured his safety.^ The natives had often carried his baggage over field and flood, without money and without price. What Africa needed was men who could preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and practise Christ's law of loving kindness.' Another survivor of that congregation says that Mr. Stewart was a very thoughtful preacher, and needed close attention. Strength was his chief feature, and he was very reticent and self-possessed. He was a thorough business man, and ready to go through fire and water at the call of duty. Before his departure the Session put on record ' their deep sense of the value of his ministrations and other services so willingly rendered. They will always look back with gratitude and pleasure on Mr. Stewart's short connection with them, and they will follow him on his mission with their fervent prayers.' There has come into my hands his copy of Vinet's Pastoral Theology. The date on it (i860) proves that he studied it when he began preaching. Hun- dreds of its sentences are underlined, and scores of ' He is here describing his experiences when in the heart of Africa with Livingstone in 1862 to 1864. See chap. viii. A STUDENT OF VINET 31 pencilled notes are on its margins. The book is thus a piece of unconscious autobiography. Some of the jottings show that he was at the same time closely studying Arthur's Tongue of Fire, and Spencer's Pastor's Sketches. These three were, after the Bible, his guide-books. These notes reveal the man. We may give a few of them, as books now- adays have been made out of the marginal notes of great men. He is a lynx-eyed detecter of mis- takes. It is astonishing how many he finds in so gifted a writer as Vinet. He decidedly objects to everything approaching the vague, the ambiguous, the irrelevant, and the slipshod — every phrase, as he puts it, that might be 'the hiding-place of a fallacy.' He heartily admires every lofty and prac- tical utterance. Evidently the young probationer is in thorough earnest about his work, and very eager to learn. Over against a warning not to over-value the beautiful, and the oratorical, he writes : ' Think over this. On this rock, J. S., you may yet strike, if you have not already struck.' Sentiment in religion, he describes as ' imagination, not conscience, at work.' Opposite a statement about economy of time, he writes : 'J. S. mark this, and act on it.' Curiously enough, anent Vinet's saying, ' I should not approve of agricultural and industrial pursuits ' (for a pastor), J. S. has written : ' Yes, clerical farmers and gardeners have an ambiguous reputation.' Again he writes : ' We have Scyllas and Charybdises all the way through the straits of life, not as at Messina, at the entrance only.' Of satire, he says, ' It can do no good in the pulpit.' When Vinet says 'there is no artificial mode of acquiring unction, the oil flows naturally from the olive,' he adds, ' Mark, 32 STEWART OF LOVEDALE learn and inwardly digest these two sentences.' Again he writes, ' Read and re-read Spencer's Pastor s Sketches! About general appeals in preaching, he remarks, ' It is not firing the gun often that kills, but firing it straight to the mark.' CHAPTER V THE GERM OF LIVINGSTONIA A Noble Purpose — His First Committee — Self-revelation — Mrs. Livingstone ' The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed.' — Jesus Christ. ' I HAVE opened the door ; I leave it to you to see that no one closes it after me.' Such was Living- stone's appeal to his countrymen during his first visit home in 1857. James Stewart was one of those who wished to push in through that door, keep it wide open, and fix it to the wall. He thus describes the growth of the impulse which he re- ceived from Livingstone in 1857: — 'It is often difficult to fix the precise date to a purpose or intention which may afterwards modify one's own life, as well as considerably influence the lives of others. The first speck or germ of the idea appears on the mind so quietly that little notice is taken of it, and its beginning is lost in the mystery which belongs to the origin of all thought. But it was in the beginning of i860 that this intention was first definitely formed. The proposal was so made at that time, not publicly but only to a few, and for consideration as to how the scheme could be best carried out. This was the real origin and first commencement of what is now known as the C 34 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Livingstonia Mission. ... It was no mere desire to form a new mission simply as such which led to the proposal at the date mentioned. Nor was it because I could not go to work in some other field ; but some influence, as little capable of analysis as an instinct, seemed to draw or push me on. The idea of the Livingstonia Mission rested from the first on a broad base. Its outline or projection has never been altered, nor has that even yet been completely filled in. The first short sentence of that remarkable Autobiography of Dr. John Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides, runs thus : " What I shall here write is for the glory of God." I cannot strike so strong and sweet a note, but I can say that, so far as a man may know his own heart, the motive was the true missionary one, containing though it generally does various influences, but in which one predomin- ates and acts as the combining element which gives solidity to the whole. This is all that need be said about motive, important as it is in missionary life and in the history of missionary effort.' Writing to one of his fellow-students, he said : ' If we make the Lord's work a pedestal for our own vanity, let us be sure that a downfall is awaiting us. Before his sacred cause the Dagons of self shall not and cannot be allowed to stand.' He urged the St. Andrews Students' Club to take up Livingstonia. They objected that they were all unknown men. 'That matters not,' he replied, 'if we are earnest men.' In 1859 he intimated to the Foreign Mission Committee of his Church that he and two fellow- students were willing to become missionaries in the region which Livingstone had unveiled to the gaze of Christendom. His Church was not then prepared AN ORGANISER AND PERSUADER 35 to undertake such a mission, but its leaders were interested in the proposal, and resolved to open communication with Dr. Livingstone. A list of twenty queries was drawn up by Stewart and forwarded to Livingstone through the Foreign Office. The ardour of Stewart was fruitful in inventions. After visits to Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester, and many persistent efforts, he, single-handed, suc- ceeded in forming a very influential committee of eighteen men, under the title of ' The New Central African Committee,' 'with the view of turning to practical account the discoveries of Livingstone, and to open a new mission in Central Africa.' He raised a considerable sum of money for the initial / expenses, and sold his patrimony at Liberty Hall, near Haddington, and also the family silver-plate, and devoted the price to the mission. The Com- mittee requested him to visit Central Africa on a mission of inquiry. He thus served a useful and successful apprentice- ship as an organiser, persuader of men, and an inspirer of liberality. He writes : ' The first efforts connected with this mission occupied me more than a year.' Here is a student — for he seems to have started his scheme before he was licensed — without academic fame or social influence, unknown and untried, who has nothing but himself to begin with, and yet he gets some twenty leading professors, ministers, and laymen to believe in him, to accent his leadership, and support him in his perilous enterprise. Probably no mere student or probationer ever had success like this. Here is proof of originality, resolution, and a remarkable gift of persuasiveness. Even then 36 STEWART OF LOVEDALE he revealed his extraordinary power of interesting and impressing people of all classes. Stewart's biography here widens into history, and history of the noblest kind, for his ideas have helped to make Central and Southern Africa what it is to-day. As the origins of great movements interest every thinker, a few extracts from Stewart's letters at this time will be welcome. Writing to Principal Douglas of Glasgow, in December i860, he says: ' I hope that better days are in store for Africa, and that you may see your way to " deal out the rope " in this country, while we go down to help them who now live in such deplorable darkness. This matter may possibly, by God's blessing, in due time bear its appropriate fruit. In the meantime I am carrying on some medical studies, with the view of fitting myself for African work more fully. But as I do not wish to be a mere student all my days, I have accepted a proposal made to me by the Committee on the Cardross Case to act as their secretary. I am inclined to " buckle to this business " with a will, as the interests it involves are very serious. I hope it may be all over before the mission to the Zambesi is ready to start. In promoting the great ends of the everlasting Gospel, we have need, however (at least I sometimes feel so), to pray that our zeal and our convictions shall not " borrow their strength from the spirit of contention," as Vinet expresses it. However, it is surely a symptom of health in the scheme that it only gathers strength from opposition. I have noticed this more than once during the past twelve months. Prudence and common-sense must be constantly exercised, while that is kept far enough removed from what is implied in the phrase, " managing men." I have rather a detestation of MRS. LIVINGSTONE 37 that, and in the long-run I think it commonly fails ; for men sooner or later perceive your game, and if you have no other hold of them, they go off alto- gether.^ I thank you most sincerely for all your good wishes and hearty expressions of sympathy. These things all help to make a man stronger : so also do the prayers of Christian friends. Let the result of all be as you say — " the salvation of souls and the honour of Christ." ' At Mrs. Livingstone's request, he delayed a month that she might accompany him, as she wished to rejoin her husband. Dr. Livingstone was then British Consul-General in the Zambesi district, and Commander of the Expedition to explore Central Africa, with a view ' to suppress slavery and develop the country.' 1 These words reveal a principle which guided him through life, and was one of the secrets of his phenomenal success in securing confidence, eliciting sympathy, and drawing out liberality. CHAPTER VI ON THE WAY From Glasgow to Cape Town, July — November 1861. ^Journal Intime — At Sea — In Cape Town — Discouragements — Self-examination — Preaching — Determination. ' I have no other fear in the world but that I may not know my whole duty or fail to do it.' — Epitaph on a Lady's Tomb. ' He goes farthest who does not know how far he means to go. ' — African Proverb. ' Prudence leans to the other side, But deeds condemned by Prudence oft have sped,' — Lines affixed by Dr. Stewart to the first page of his Journal. ' Travel in the younger sort is a part of education ; in the elder, a part of experience. ' — Bacon . Stewart left a large and carefully written Journal, which is a mirror of his soul, between 1861 and 1863. The greater part of the information in this and the three following chapters has been gleaned from this Journal Intime, in which he seems to have collected materials for a book on Africa and its missions. I am also indebted to Dr. Stewart's Daiv7i in the Dark Continent ; Livingstonia, its Origin ; and four Articles in the Sunday Magazine o{ i?)"/^ and 1875 on ' Recollections of Dr. Livingstone and the Zambesi ' ; The Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries, by David and Charles Livingstone ; and Dr. Blaikie's Personal Life of Livingstone. 88 CROSSING THE LINE 39 On 6th July, 1861, Mrs. Livingstone and James Stewart sailed from Southampton in the Royal Mail Steamer Celt. He writes : ' What shall be the result of this long journey I know not. I feel already the weight of the many difficulties that lie before me, and yet I hardly feel as if all this will go for nought. The Lord alone knoweth. Let me be less anxious about success than about being faithful. I will commit my way to Him, He will bring it to pass in His own time. I will stay myself on God, for in a journey like this there cannot be any other security, any other source of success.' *• Friday, July 12. ' O God, give Thou the wisdom — the guidance I need. Thou hast led so far, lead me the rest of the way, and let such work be done as shall be to the praise of Thy name and Thy grace, and such as shall make known also Thy purposes of grace and mercy to men on earth.' 'July 18. ' Yesterday I began to see that if my spiritual life is to be altered in any way for the better, I must be a " Methodist" in my religion : I must observe rule and method. I must watch and pray. I must read at stated times, and of a certain quality.' 'July 26. 'To-day we crossed the line — that momentous passage in all sea-voyages. Shall I live to cross it again and again, to run to and fro on my Master's work. Spare me, O God, for this if it be Thy will. Give me days to do Thy work on earth — worthless, wild, and wayward though I be. . . . This evening 40 STEWART OF LOVEDALE we commenced worship in the aft end of the saloon. It is true we had to break up a card party to get at it, even though it was half-past nine. It has been a cause of satisfaction to most that this step has been taken. It required a good deal of careful survey of the ground previously. ... I discovered among the many papers at the end of my Bible a motto in my mother's handwriting. Her affection to me was strong as death. Lest that precious little fragment should ever be lost, let me here transcribe it : '"Be ' " Thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life." ' '^August 2. ' The conversation at the upper end of the table still continues to be the most wonderful prattle that grown men with beards can indulge in. It is most wearisome indeed to listen to.' Prayers were read on the morning of Sunday, and Mr. Stewart had a service with the sailors in the fore- castle. He prepared for these services very carefully. On 13th August, 1 861, he reached Cape Town. The following is the entry in his Journal for that day : — ^August 13. ' This should be a red-letter day. To-day I first sighted African land — the probable, or at least the possible, future land of my labours.' During this voyage he read books of travel, theo- logy, and general literature. He also studied missions, especially those of the Moravians, and was attracted by the idea of a self-supporting mission. He had an eager eye for everything that might help him in mission-work. Now and again he vfxotQ perdidi diem and dies non. AT CAPE TOWN 41 Mrs. Livingstone and Mr. Stewart had to wait fully three months in Cape Town before they could arrange for their voyage to Durban. These three months were in many ways extremely trying to him, for they brought many bitter experiences. He kept himself occupied in many ways. He seems to have been almost daily at the Dispensary and the Hos- pitals, increasing and using his medical knowledge. One of his amusements was to practise at the shoot- ing-range. His prophetic spirit whispered to him that he would need skill as a marksman. He preached in all the Protestant churches, except the Episcopal, and took part in many public meetings. His services and addresses were carefully prepared and often written in full. He thus refers to them: — ' In future put less matter in my sermons and come sooner to the practical application. Let there be less thought and more feeling, more home-thrusts to the conscience.' ^August 31. ' The criticism of the Alail is exceedingly friendly, but would to God it were intellectual and spiritual fervour instead of " intellectual fervour " alone. But my motive is pure, and there I must leave the matter. I would rather have one conversion than any amount of praise, even of the most public kind. But if I cannot do all things, I can at least do my best.' ' September 29. ' This evening I preached to a not very large con- gregation. I was very thoroughly awake myself, but at present I am in doubt as to the effect pro- duced. The attention was very marked and the silence considerable. O that God would bless the word. May I serve Him, soul and body.' 42 STEWART OF LOVEDALE On leaving Cape Town he wrote : ' I have also gained some confidence in myself, and some experi- ence in the way of speaking, and also some experience medically, and some knowledge of my own folly and weakness. There have been drawbacks. I might have done very much more, if I had lived more carefully, if I had improved my time more con- scientiously.' Like Livingstone, he refreshed himself by the study of Botany and Natural History. He often studied the plants in the Gardens and explained them to Mrs. Livingstone. ' I went, according to my wont when bothered, to the Botanic Gardens to try the cooling effect of a little Botany. I am glad I have this study to take to at times.' He was astonished to find in the educational room of the Library a copy of his Botanical Diagrams. 'What would my good mother have said, had she known that these would travel to the Cape before me.' Memories of home often rushed in upon him. 'This is the memorable 20th of August. What memories and associations cluster round the day. O my mother, had I better known the priceless value of that affection, how different it might have been. The 20th of August last year too. Does it not seem as if God so far were looking favourably on the enterprise. With what fear and doubting and with how little knowledge of the way was I then groping for light. Perhaps another year will have dispelled much of the present darkness and shown things in a clearer light.' In Cape Town all sorts of discouragements as- sailed him at once. His friends thought that he was likely to die soon of consumption, and his figure and complexion were then fitted to suggest such a DISCOURAGEMENTS 43 danger. * To-day Mrs. L. spoke of the opinion of some of my friends in Edinburgh, who thought 1 should die of consumption before I get back. I hope, however, I shall live to return to Scotland.' ' About myself I learned that the opinion of Cape Town is that my health will not stand the work I have undertaken. . . . Kirk had heard before he came ashore of " Mr. Stewart, who was tall and slight and with hollow cheeks," but what an ex- cellent preacher! I get my share of public notice.' A brig had been hired to convey from Durban a mission party to Bishop Mackenzie's Universities' Mission on the Shir^, and it had been arranged that Mrs. Livingstone and Stewart should get a passage along with them. Very great efforts were made to prevent Stewart from reaching the Zambesi. He was assured that he could not gain entrance to Zambesiland, and he was told that Livingstone would not welcome or help him. The Bishop of Cape Town urged these views and offered him a free passage to England. Efforts were made to persuade Mrs. Livingstone to separate from Stewart, and to proceed to the Zambesi with the Episcopal party ; but she declared she would not go one step unless he accompanied her. He writes : ' Mrs. Livingstone spoke in a way not to be mistaken — assuring L that if I did not go on, she would not stir from Cape Town. Here she stood bravely by me. I will remember her words and how she came to the rescue.' But for her resolution, he should probably have been stranded at Cape Town. The Episcopalians did not wish him to reach the Zambesi, as they thought that priority of occupation gave them a right to the whole of Zambesiland, which within a 44 STEWART OF LOVEDALE few months they were to abandon. Stewart had then his first experience of that amazing arrogance which many churchmen mistake for catholicity. The Portuguese Consul in Cape Town spread a rumour that he was a hypocritical trader in the guise of a missionary, and that he had vast quan- tities of beads which he wished to sell among the natives. This monstrous lie found favour in some quarters, though he was not aware of its existence till he reached Durban. Others further injured his reputation by circulating scandalous stories about him. His financial experiences when laying in his stores were also very unhappy, and suggested the following entry in his Journal : ' Let me try every day to be on my guard, to take, though it is against my nature sadly, every man for a rogue till I find him an honest man. Remember also that more is gained in this world by dexterity than by strength.' The endless delays were wearing out his spirit, and his money was melting away. The sorest trial of all was the fact that from the time he left Scot- land till he reached Livingstone, not one single individual gave him the slightest encouragement. Even the friends of missions thought that his quest could bring only failure and disaster. One esteemed friend frankly declared that he ' would have nothing to do with such a scheme,' and that the whole thing ' was a matter of moonshine.' Mrs. Livingstone agreed with them in thinking that the obstacles were insuperable, and that he should abandon the attempt. Livingstone was the first man who gave him hearty encouragement, though the friends in Cape Town had filled his mind with fears about Livingstone's attitude to him. CHRISTIAN HEROISM 45 Is it possible that any pioneer missionary has ever had greater discouragements than these? He dived into his own heart and thoroughly examined his motives ; he faced all the facts ; he devoted him- self afresh to the work, and resolved to go forward without hesitation. His Christian heroism was sub- lime, and his Journal and his actions reveal the man, his intense struggles and his victories. We turn again to his Journal : ' I do not see how an entrance is to be made into the interior. I do not see where the door is to be opened. And yet at this time last year, surely the prospects of the missions were black enough. No man stood by me. And oh ! these miserable weeks. And yet I must confess that it is by faith only that I can see my way even now. What a whole host of difficulties lie in the way ! " Hell's empire vast and grim " is well defended by all manner of outpost and fortified positions. 'In talking with Mrs. Livingstone I said that even to myself my life is an enigma. I am not such a fool surely as to throw away, or to have already done so, chances which may never occur again. I might have been comfortably settled by this time with a snug income and regular work befitting my taste and agreeing with me. And yet how difficult is my position ! What difficulties I am about to encounter, what disgusts to become acquainted with, what disappointments to meet. I cannot say anything till I have seen further into the scheme. Meantime let me go on in faith. If I had not very much of this I could not go on. I feel safe in the path until my work in it is done. I have a firm belief in the guiding providence of God. ' In talk with Mr. , I find the very same wise, significant look, " We know, we would, etc.," which is 46 STEWART OF LOVEDALE intended to signify that my errand is a wild goose chase, that the results are too far distant, that we shall all be dead men before any fruit appears, and that there is little to be expected, even after fifteen or twenty years' work.^ . . . Let me do this work as for Christ, let me do it with all my might. So help by the Spirit of grace and wisdom, my great Master, my blessed Saviour, Lord Jesus. What is there I cannot do if Thou wilt help me and give me grace to be faithful ? In God's strength I will go humbly on, resolved to succeed or to lose all in the attempt. ' But let me not grumble. It is all the better that I rise above men and know no master save one, Jesus Christ. Let me strive and watch till I awake satisfied with His likeness. To-day I have been feeling the isolation and loneliness of my position ver)'' much. As I sat drawing, I was startled at my own audacity. What ! you, J. S., to move the whole Free Church or even the whole of Presbyterian Scotland to found a mission in Central Africa, having for its object the enlightenment of a great part of the east of the Continent ! I have been, and am at this moment, obliged to fall back on my primary supports. I need to look at my purpose in all its greatness to obtain the necessary standing. My position is this. The country is undeveloped ; I am waiting here for an opportunity of proceeding, and wait long. Delay is sickening. It seems as if there were no need. Why not wait till the country is developed ? Against this let me place the fact that if once the boundaries are extended, they will ^ His feelings were like those of his friend General Gordon when on the White Nile. He thought that the storks in the islands were laughing at and mocking him, as if highly amused at the idea of any body hoping to do good at Gondokoro. ABIDING INSPIRATIONS 47 be filled up. It must be done by some man. I mean the old frontiers must be extended. If it is to be my lot — and it seems to be very clearly — let me take my work like a man. Let me do it though I die. To-day I have been obliged to fall back on some strong and never-failing aid. This evening I had to seek a verse wherewith to fortify myself. I found it. "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass." When I / read a little and pray, I receive new strength, and the burden becomes perceptibly lighter. Let me not forget this, but often practise it, for, J. S., you will yet have great need. ' But is there not some very considerable advan- tage in thus feeling myself charged with the whole responsibility of this stupendous piece of work ? Aye, surely. If I had not many times felt that on my own shoulders I carried the fate and fortunes of a possible mission, I should not have been here to- day. God give me strength and power for all my work, whatever that may be.' Writing of many discouragements, he says : ' If my aim and purpose were sustained by an earthly motive, or were it for an earthly master, long since should my purpose have failed. But I look higher, to the wants of a great proportion of the race and to the will of Christ. ... It seems that some appalling charges are about to be brought against me. I went to bed as one stunned and confounded. ... I feel still as if some strange nightmare were oppressing me. . . . But the conclusion to which I have come is this — I must do my work without minding what any one says. I shall let them all alone. I am sufficient in myself. . . . The best thing for me to do is to go on calling no man master. My trust 48 STEWART OF LOVEDALE must be in the fact that, so far as I can perceive, I am in the way of duty, and that my life is worth only so much as it is worth to the cause, 1 may therefore, and ought indeed to school my- self to become perfectly without fear, be as cool in the surging bar of the Kongoni, as if I were in my bed here or in Grove Street, Edinburgh. Let me seek after this to face death as a likely thing every day, and fear will depart. I cannot say that even as it is I am much troubled. Still let me ever drill myself to that — if I must part with life, good and well. Its fever will be over. I will then enter into rest, which I have not known on earth, though I have often longed for it. . . . But it is enough for me that I look forward to the rest I shall find when my soul is received by God my Father into the peace and purity of the other life. If I can but find when I enter His presence at the moment of de- parture from this life, that all ray sins are eternally forgotten by Him, that He receives me as a son returned to His father from his wanderings in the sin and folly of Time to be eternally with Him, never once to offend or grieve Him, always to serve Him as I wish to serve Him, but cannot by reason of the evil that lives within me. I have not for long felt more willingness to leave life whenever He shall call me. No doubt some of this is due to weariness and depression, but not all. Oh, surely heaven will be rest indeed when I read in my Father's face the signs of full and perfect forgiveness, and am sure that He will never cast me off, when He receives me as a son whom He will keep for ever in the light of His presence. Give me strength and grace to be faithful.' To one of his fellow-clubmen he wrote, ' I got A CUP OF COLD WATER 49 your letter before I left Cape Town. Like a draught of water from some cool fountain hidden in the shadow of a great rock, to the wearied traveller who has been toiling through burning sands and under a blazing sun, was that draught of old friendship to my soul.' D CHAPTER VII FURTHER ON THE WAY From Cape Town to the Zambesi November 15, 1861, to February i, 1862. At Durban — Evil Reports — His Stock of Beads — Vexing Delays — Visions of Home — At Quilimane — With Living- stone— Satisfied. ' The end of the geographical feat is only the beginning of the missionary enterprise. ' — Livingstone. 'O Lord, send me to the darkest spot on earth.' — John Mackenzie, Missionary and Statesman. 'Never.' — The reply of Mackay of Uganda when it was proposed to abandon the Mission. On November 15th Mrs. Livingstone and Mr. Stewart sailed fron:i Cape Town in the Waldensian. Along with them were the Universities' mission party, which consisted of one ordained missionary, four ladies, and the printer to the mission. These were under the direction of Mr. George Rae, the chief engineer of Livingstone's Zambesi Expedition. They arrived in Durban on November 21st, and had to wait there for the Hetty Ellen, a brig which was bringing from Glasgow Dr. Livingstone's Lady Nyasa (an iron steamer in sections), which he intended to launch on Lake Nyasa. The Hetty Ellen arrived in Durban after a passage of ninety-nine days from Glasgow. The party had 60 IN THE FURNACE 51 to spend nearly five weeks in Durban, which had then between a thousand and fifteen hundred whites, and its streets were only straggling paths over unen- closed fields. Stewart was very active during this period ; preaching often ; visiting on horseback nearly all the Protestant missions within fifty miles of Durban ; gathering and arranging, as his Journal shows, ample information about the natives, missionary methods, and the conditions of the country. From Durban he writes: 'It will be a great shame if I do not write a good book full of facts and graphic descriptions. If it be true that every man has his opportunity, I have mine. If I miss it, I shall not have another.' This book was never written. The making of history during the coming years left him no time for writing it. There are not many Caesars who can do both. All the trials that harassed him in Cape Town now came back upon him in an aggravated form. His clothes were threadbare, his funds were low, and he began to fear that ere long he should be without daily bread. ' I am worried, wearied with anxiety, concerned about, not great pay, but mere bread. I have my character slandered, my motives misconstrued. How terrible will be the blow if I have to turn back and go home without having accomplished anything. O God, save me from this humiliation.' Expected letters from home did not arrive : it seemed as if his friends had forgotten him. He was confounded by learning that the Portuguese Consul in Cape Town had persuaded many that he was a rogue and a vagabond. Shameful things had been 52 STEWART OF LOVEDALE imputed to him, as was well known among influ- ential people in Durban. His situation was now more alarming than it had been in Cape Town, for he could sail in the Hetty Ellen only by favour of those who were determined to keep him back if they could. ' Went on board the Hetty Ellen. Captain told me he would have some difficulty in taking me on, that he could not do so unless with the sanction of the " other party." . . . Both yesterday and to-day they (the other party) had been on board and did their utmost to get him to leave me behind. I asked him what charge they could bring against me. He gave no answer to this. He regretted that matters should be so, but did not wish to offend those who had chartered the vessel. Mr. insisted I was not of their party, and that I had no right to go there. I told the Captain by whom I was commissioned, that I was a minister of the Free Church, what my object was, and to Dr. Livingstone I should go though I should walk all the way. ... I came ashore and talked to Mr. . The conversa- tion was of the most extraordinary kind. He showed himself perfectly incompetent to understand my object or myself. . . . The conversation was thus brought to a close. He looked me full in the face and said : " Well, Mr. Stewart, you are not going into the country as a trader, tell me that." I gave him no answer but kept staring at him in astonish- ment and anger. He said : " I was warned against you at the Cape on the ground that you were going into the country in the pretended character of a missionary, but really as a trader, and that you had large quantities of beads." ' " If you wish to see how large a quantity of STANDING ALONE 53 beads I have, come over to this warehouse." We went in silence. From the bottom of a packing- case I fished up a small paper or pasteboard box about four inches square. I tore it open and dis- played eleven small red and blue beads. I threw down the box and said : " There is the enormous quantity of beads about which the Portuguese Consul and yourself have held such grave and anxious deliberations. These are the goods with which I intend to monopolise the trade of the Portuguese on the Zambesi." ' With that I came away and walked home by the beach — weak, weary, dispirited. I wondered at the position I had got myself into. I longed for the quiet and rest of home, for those peaceful days in a snug manse in some quiet glen in the north, or softer vale in the south or west. But here I am battling with obstinate and unprincipled men, hewing my way to a man who will perhaps receive me well or perhaps ill. In person and in purse I am suffering. I looked at my worn coat and saw how threadbare it was getting. I felt truly that the difficulties and temptations of independent acting for the Gospel's sake, in the effort to strike out a new path, were not all realised at once, and that it is in detail we come to know what these difficulties and temptations are. . . . This evening, weary and dispirited, I feel the vastness and magnitude of the undertaking more than I have for some time past.' All the missionaries he met wished to persuade him to abandon his plans in the meantime. They believed that he must fail, and would, in all proba- bility, soon die. Several remonstrated with him. Regarding a zealous missionary he says : ' He spoke of . . . the supreme folly of my journey — did not 54 STEWART OF LOVEDALE wince in the least when I told him that all his arguments against my position might have been equally used against himself twenty-five years ago. . . . Let me record my conviction to be examined some future day and found correct or false — that there is some work in store for me to do in that part of the world. All unworthy, all unfit as I am in many respects, yet I think I have the call to go and work there. O then, my faint heart, be courageous. Be strong in Another's strength. . . . And as to final results, why should I be too anxious? My object was and is pure. It was not desire of wandering. It was not because I could not succeed at home. It was not for the love of notoriety or desire of fame. It was and is simply because there is fit occasion now for the opening up of the country, because it seems as if we may " take occasion by the hand, and make the bounds of freedom wider yet." . . . But somehow I have the impression that I have a work to do in this quarter of the world. If I am spared I will do it, though, alas, it is even now by many a privation, by much hardship, and by a weary wandering uncertain sort of life.' He records his determination, should a passage be denied him, to reach Livingstone by walking all the way on foot, a distance of about nine hundred miles. Like a true Scot, he had determined 'to do or dee.' 'The strong man and the waterfall channel their own path,' as the proverb puts it. Had those who were determined to turn Mr. Stewart back succeeded in winning Mrs. Living- stone to their side, all his hopes would have been crushed. But she did not forget that at her request, and for her convenience, he had changed all his plans. She remained thoroughly loyal to him, HOME-SICKNESS 55 and as they could not leave her, they had to take both. ' In the afternoon I went to Mrs. Livingstone. She said it had all been arranged. She repeated her de- termination not to leave without me. I thanked her with all sincerity, and I hope with due gratitude.' The difficulties even then were not over. After a peculiarly harassing day he writes : — ' Let me make an entry to solace my weary hours with thoughts of that better country, when I am weary and sick of the strife and struggle that my present life is leading me into. ' "And I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem." 'For thee, O dear dear country, mine eyes their vigils keep, Thy happy name beholding, for very love they weep. The mention of thy glory is unction to the breast, And medicine in sickness and love and life and rest. And now we fight the battle and then we wear the crown Of full and everlasting and passionless renown. O land that seest no sorrow ! O state that know'st no strife ! O princely bowers I O land of flowers ! O realm and home of life.' He was haunted and tortured by doubts that his hero, as he had been told again and again, would not welcome or help him, and he had decided what he would do in that case. His Journals during these days reveal his inmost heart, the agonies he en- dured, a courage mounting with the occasion, and a resoluteness that could hardly be surpassed. ' If it should turn out that Dr. Livingstone refuses to do anything for me, I must not on that account give up. It may be possible to enter Central Africa without him or in spite of him. His assistance would be most valuable, but it is not to be reckoned indispensable.' 56 STEWART OF LOVEDALE On December 24th the Hetty Ellen ^ sailed. ' I . . . got up on the stern, behind the wheel, took off my hat and gave the three heartiest cheers I ever gave in my life. So we sailed out of Port Natal.' He was in the best mood for cheering ; he had won a long, doubtful and hard-fought battle ; and after all he was to reach Livingstone and the Zambesi ; and they had on board the Lady Nyasa, whose name inspired the hope that Central Africa was soon to be opened up. *■ December 2$, 1862. 'This is Christmas Day, and O strangest of all contrasts is this day to this day twelvemonth. About the same time in the evening that we were sitting together in my snug room in Grove Street . . . turning round to the fire to enjoy some pleasant chat, I was creeping, weak and weary, up from the hold of the Hetty Ellen (where I had lain in an uneasy slumber all day) to the deck for some fresh air. Last year, after a day's hard work at the Card- ross office, I made my way home through the snowy streets, . . . the warm room, the curtains drawn close, the linen more snowy than the snow without. . . . O how my thoughts wander homewards. It seems to me as if it would be happiness to be at home. ... I went forward to the bows of the ship and held a short meeting with the men. If some seeds of eternal truth are lodged in some hearts and if reflections be wakened on eternal realities, then I shall be satisfied and be content to do my work along the way, though it be to small and fugitive congregations.' On the last day of the year he makes the following ' A small sailing-vessel of one hundred and eighty tons. A WILD GOOSE CHASE 57 entry in his Journal : — ' Make me patient under calumny whether it be at home or abroad. Give me patience to labour at details as much as if they were the highest work. Let me not get disappointed with the opposition that may be thrown in the way. If it shall prove not to be Thy call for me to labour here, help me to take the lesson Thou givest for my good. Help me to be content with Thy work /;/ me if not by me, and out of all the vexation and trial it has brought, only let my heart be brought nearer Thee.' During the long days on the ship Mr. Stewart often reflected on his position : — * It would almost appear as if I were on as real a wild goose chase as ever mortal started on. Here I am careering over a whole continent in search of work I have marked out for myself. What I want or desire is more thorough conviction. And yet I must say I cannot well have more. All the circumstances attending my choice are such as to make it appear as my work to go and open directly the way for Christianity into Central Africa. Let me realise this idea more dis- tinctly, and work at it. The work has yet to be done in part at least. It is not by the Zambesi that the way in will ever be found — at least I think so. What stronger call can I wish or expect than what I have had : concurrent circumstances, continuous conviction, the ways and means provided, and especi- ally these two events in that most memorable year. All things concurred : why should I have refused ? . . . ' It seems to me I shall be getting old before I can effect anything up there. My life with a great aim is aimless. Yet ... I have much to be thankful, yea, very grateful, to God my Father for all His kindness and goodness to me. I possess ex- 58 STEWART OF LOVEDALE cellent health, better than most men in the ship. I have been turning over in my own mind my singular position. Out of it comes my idea, large and distinct enough at times : the introduction of the Gospel into that part of Africa, if it shall be found practicable and advisable now. That is, if communication can be opened, if Dr. Livingstone's co-operation can be secured, if men and money can be got at home. ... It is perhaps beyond my strength. Still, let me work on, keeping before me the idea in its greatest breadth and simplicity — the introduction of the Gospel into a new field. This will hallow all labour and dignify every employment, even to the putting up of a small steamer.' Again : * To-day, in thinking over the future, I confess I feel doubtful enough. It seems to me as if I must go home and work, taught, chastened, almost branded with the mark of ambition, with running where I was not sent, with seeking to do God's work, while He refuses to have it done by such hands as mine. On the other hand, if I can make a beginning, and gain the confidence of the Church, why should I not try to take up Dr. Livingstone's work, as far at least as its moral objects are concerned. ... In the introduction of the Gospel into Central Africa, why may not the idea come from me as well as from any one else ? I not only give the idea, but I give my life and hard work to the task. If it be said that I am young, let me simply answer, many men have lived three times the age, but have never conceived the idea, and many have conceived it who have not attempted it. Perhaps I may find Dr. Livingstone unwilling to have anything to do with me. Am I then to stop ? ' AT QUILIMANE 59 Calumny still pursued him. On January 29th, at anchor off Quilimane, he writes : — ' For ten months has been going about giving the impression that I am a rogue and impostor, thwarting me in every way and causing great additional expense. ... I sat long on the poop, looking up at the stars, wonder- ing if Zambesi expeditions harassed and worried any of these bright abodes. My view of life partook of sadness surely, though I confess that never before was heaven so precious, so much like home to me as since I set out on this journey. My heart has gone thither. Only there does there seem anything like rest for me. Whatever the future of my life may be, let my heart remain true to that final home of the redeemed ; may it ever vibrate thither as the needle to the pole. ... If Livingstone himself had got discouraged, we should have had nothing to- day of what we now know from the Missionary Travels. Patience and courage will yet solve the riddle, for this Zambesi is as yet a riddle. . . . O my Father, use me, all unworthy as I am, for Thy great purposes of love and mercy to our race on earth.' It was scarcely possible that the future could bring him greater trials of uncertainty and opposition than those he had already conquered. If in after years some were disposed to regard the founder of Livingstonia as too tenacious of his own opinions when they were not shared by his yoke- fellows, they should remember that without that marvellous tenacity of purpose he could never have reached the Zambesi, or become one of the greatest of modern missionary pioneers. He acted as chaplain to the seamen and had a service for them every Sabbath, and a short service 6o STEWART OF LOVEDALE for them every evening, and was encouraged by their attention and appreciation. On January 8, 1862, there was a cry from the mast-head, ' Land Ho,' but it was a mistaken signal. As they could get no news of Livingstone, they sailed to Mozambique. He there met Captain Wilson, Commander of H.M.S. Gorgon, one of the squadron cruising on the coast for the suppression of slavery. They became attached friends, and Captain Wilson after- wards took a conspicuous part in the establishment of Livingstonia. On the first day of February 1862, the Pioneer, with Livingstone on board, steamed alongside the Hetty Ellen. ' All the troubles and worries of many years,' says J. S., 'seemed compensated in the romance of this morning. . . . Though I have never seen him before, I have no difficulty in identifying the man. In his white trousers, frock-coat, and naval cap, he looked uncommonly smart and had a commanding air. ... I could not help remarking to Mrs. Livingstone that the Doctor seemed to be a great swell. She gives me a gratified slap for so speaking of the great pioneer, on whom I have just set my admiring eyes. ... I am introduced to the Doctor, and shake hands. " I am glad to see you here, Mr. Stewart," he said. " Thank you, Doctor," was all my reply, except the hearty good- will and admiration with which I look at the man.' All the fears with which others had inspired him about Dr. Livingstone's action were at an end. Concerning this matter he had had endless fears during the past seven months, none of which had been realised. Nine sweet words of welcome had BREAKING THE SPELL 6i broken the horrid spell, and he now walks at liberty, a new man in a new world. ' I am satisfied,' he writes ; ' I remain on board in a state of contented quiescence.' CHAPTER VIII THE COMPANION OF LIVINGSTONE Livingstone's Hearty Welcome — On the Zambesi— The Uni- versities' Mission — The Blacksmith — Death of Mrs. Livingstone — Exploring the Shir^ and the Zambesi — Cotton-growing — Fevers — A Bag of Bones — Homewards. ' One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better. Sleep to wake.' — Browning's ' Asolando.' ' It is not the work I shrink from : it is the want of work.' ' Men talk of the hardships of missionary life. How little they realise them in detail I Yet for all thai ! do not mind one straw, were it possible to get set to work.' — Dr. Stewart's Journal. ' I feel quite exhilarated : when one travels with the specific object of ameliorating the condition of the natives, every act is ennobled.' — Livingstone. ' The same toils are not so intolerable to a general as to a common soldier.' — Xenophon . James Stewart is now on the Zambesi, welcomed by Livingstone, and his guest on board the Pioneer} one of the happiest and most thankful of men. 'It seemed to me,' he writes (July 2, 1862), 'the realising of some strange dream to be rambling ^ The Pioneer was the steamer which the Government had placed at the disposal of Livingstone as Consul and Commander of the Ex- pedition for exploring Eastern and Central Africa. His brother Charles and Dr. (now Sir John) Kirk belonged to the party. 62 LIVINGSTONE'S HOSPITALITY 63 through the grassy delta and mangrove forests of the Zambesi on this African summer evening with Dr. Livingstone.' He resolved not to mention his painful experi- ences at Cape Town, Durban, and on the voyage. Dr. Livingstone had heard of them and introduced the subject. * I did not mean to refer to these things,' Stewart said. ' As an honest man yourself, you must know the pain it gives to be constantly suspected.' Dr. Livingstone replied, ' I think all that behaviour on their part was madness. It seems to me that they were acting in the most nonsensical way imaginable. . . . These obstacles were but the temptations of the evil one.' ' I saw that he thought as I thought,' Stewart adds, 'and I was content.' They had many long conversations about the mission, and almost everything. They were both keenly interested in Theology, Literature, Botany, Astronomy, and Natural History, and they were of one opinion about the mission. * I said my object was to gain as much informa- tion as would enable me to get a strong Presbyterian Mission established. I was not peculiarly anxious to make it a Free Church affair. I thought the Free, United Presbyterian, and English Presbyterian Churches might be well united. The first thing that would draw them together would be mutual interest in some common work. ' Dr. Livingstone said he had a warm side to the Free Church, and if he had been at home at the time, he would probably have joined it. He had also a certain affection for the Established Church — from being brought up in connection with it, and from parish school reminiscences. " Indeed," he 64 STEWART OF LOVEDALE said, " I would be glad to see any one send out a mission, except perhaps the Socinians. I would not like them. ... I think the better plan will be for you to go up to see the country. You can go as far as the lake. You can see the river and the people and the bishop's station and be able to judge for yourself." ' When I went into some further details about my relation to the expedition and the question of ex- penses, he replied, " that is unnecessary ; you can mess with us." ' Exulting in his strength, freedom, and new-born hope, Stewart toiled like a Hercules, transferring the cargo from the Hetty Ellen to the Pioneer, gather- ing firewood for the steamer and making himself generally useful. ' It was a wholesome sight,' he remarks, 'to see Dr. Livingstone and Captain Wilson pushing and shoving as merrily as ordinary sea- men.' The degenerate Portuguese looked on with amaze- ment. The richer among them wore a very long nail on their little finger, to show that they never touched manual work. That was no small part of the Nemesis that attended slave-holding. On the 9th of March, the Pioneer reached Shu- panga. The river was low then, and the steamer was often stranded on the sand-banks, and set afloat only with great difficulty. They were imprisoned on one sand-bank for a whole week. Only with great efforts could they collect enough firewood. They had spent fully five weeks on the river. His Journal at this period throbs with hopes and fears. ' I believe I have found my sphere, and though I am getting exceeding poor, yet I must follow out my convictions. ... I feel that I may disappoint SELF-REVELATION 65 my friends, and that from promising much and accomplishing little, I shall damage my own in- fluence . . . but I did the work from as pure a motive as I am capable of entertaining, or I believe any other man is capable of entertaining. . . . To- day I felt gloomy and dull, but not less resolute than ever. This is the peculiarity specially — that is, that I feel so much all these difficulties, and yet that they never alter my resolution in any degree. ... I am getting an old man. I shall be thirty shortly, and how little have I accomplished. . . . My life up to the time I engaged in this effort was peace itself. I seemed to have lived in a quiet haven of rest ; now I am out on the stormiest of seas. ... At times I yearn for home, quiet and regular work. Eleven years' preparation and expenditure, and no settled goal yet. I wish I could see my way a little more clearly. I am willing to labour anywhere if I can see it to be the right sphere. ... I am not weary of the work or sick of it, but I feel keenly my difficult position. Yet why grumble ? It is the law of benevolence. I cannot do good to the miserable without being touched by their misery,' He adds a note : ' Things to ask for in prayer — perseverance in a holy life, willingness to do God's will and suffer it, rest in divine sovereignty, not theoretical, but calm, happy acquiescence in God's power as exercised towards me.' Stewart spent four months at Shupanga, Living- stone's headquarters on the Zambesi. The sister of Bishop Mackenzie, and Mrs. Burrup, the wife of one of his assistants, returned with the distressing news that both the Bishop and Mr. Burrup were dead, and that the Universities' Mission was imperilled. Both Livingstone and Stewart felt that these calami- E 66 STEWART OF LOVEDALE ties might discourage the hope of planting another mission in Central Africa, but they were of the opinion that the hope should not be abandoned. Stewart was not idle. He studied Theology, Botany, Astronomy, Natural History, the native, the native language, of which he wished to make a grammar, and Portuguese. Among the books he was then reading he mentions Vinet, Pascal, Hodge, Isaac Taylor, and the Princeton Review. He gathered all information likely to be useful for the mission and his book on Africa. When a boy, he had said that he would never be satisfied till he was in Africa with a Bible in his pocket and a rifle on his shoulder. He had now often a rifle on his shoulder, to supply, not only his wants, but also the wants of his party. He objected to shoot except 'for a legitimate object,' and he now 'shot for the pot.' Food was scarce, and the party were some- times half-starved. * I could not but think it a curious phenomenon in my life, that here in the heavy tropical twilight I should be stumping about among muddy creeks, wet up to the knees amongst tall reeds and grass on an alligator-haunted island in search of something for to-morrow's dinner, and finding . . . great difficulty in getting enough to eat.' 1 Frequent attacks of fever depressed his spirits, but the bare idea of abandoning the mission always intensified his determination. ^ He regarded as fair game all animals fit for food, and all noxious animals and beasts of prey. But he never shot an elephant, though he was often near large herds of them. He disapproved of their destruction for sport or for a little ivory. He never fired a shot till he was sure, so far as he could judge, that it would be fatal. He abhorred the idea of causing needless pain to any of God's creatures. THE DREAMER 67 In his Journal of those days the homeless wanderer dwells fondly on visions of home. His soul finds solace in sweet dreams, and exults in perfect con- trasts. He hears the Sabbath bells at Scone, enjoys the fragrance of the old paternal fields, and listens to the sough of the corn in harvest-time. He holds nightly converse with his ' saintly mother,' his father, 'his dear, dear brother Johnnie.' ... 'I awoke, and I was alone in Africa,' he writes. By day, he thinks and writes about the ' then ' and the ' now,' and wonders and prays over the mysterious future. When Dr. Livingstone and Dr. Kirk were away, either up or down the river, Stewart was doctor and chaplain. He did all he could to secure the spiritual welfare of the company and the due obser- vance of the Sabbath-day, * thinking it best at all hazards, and at every inconvenience, to keep the day according to the commandment.' ' On the whole,' he writes, ' the day, though busily spent, was not spent as a Sabbath, and therefore was misspent. A proposed to go ashore to shoot. This led to a conversation on the Sabbath, and on religious topics. I said a man should never be ashamed to acknowledge that he feared the God who created him. O how I long for something like a Sabbath again ! Little during the day except an intense longing after the happy, quiet Sabbaths of home.' Here is his record of a delightful surprise. ' In the evening I got into a very interesting conversa- tion with Macleod, the blacksmith of the Pioneer. He is a Scot from Campsie, has a true west country twang, and like most of our countrymen, far better informed on many subjects of the highest importance 68 STEWART OF LOVEDALE than nine-tenths of those among whom he lives. I found him to be a Christian, and the manner of his calling was one of the most singular that has ever been heard of. He was for some time resting on a righteousness of his own, trusting to a moral life and his general goodness, but frequently with misgivings as to the security of his foundations. At times he felt that the sand on which he was resting was moving. When at Johanna on board the Lynx^ he was sent along with a party to assist the Enchantress^ which had got ashore. In the subsequent destruc- tion of the vessel there was much confusion. Kick- ing about the deck, he found some of Spurgeon's sermons. In reading a few sentences casually where the book opened, he met the expression : " You need not carry your coals to Newcastle," i.e. you need not bring your righteousness to the righteousness of Christ. He saw his mistake, and shortly afterwards found peace and rest on the true foundation.' This blacksmith had made the very discovery that was made by Saul of Tarsus, Luther, Wesley, and Dr. Chalmers. John Reid, from Govan, the carpenter of the Pioneer., for some time the only white companion of Stewart at Shupanga, cherished the warmest affection for the young explorer. He used to tell that when bedtime drew near, Stewart 'read a psalm or some other passage in the Bible, and gave a nice explanation, and then had a short prayer, and he did the same in the morning.' Some time afterwards Stewart met Reid in Sauchiehall Street. He dropped a leather bag he was carrying, and seized his friend with both hands. Years afterwards, when Dr. Stewart was Moderator, he telegraphed an invitation to Reid to spend a day with him, and MRS. LIVINGSTONE'S LAST HOURS 69 gave him an exuberant welcome when he arrived. Reid described him as a ' splendid, God-fearing man. He was as fine a man as ever I saw.' Stewart was at Shupanga when Mrs. Livingstone died of the fever of the country. Of that sad experience he wrote in the Sunday Magazine : ' The man who had faced so many deaths and braved so many dangers was now utterly broken down and weeping like a child. He asked me to commend her soul to God in prayer. And he, Kirk and my- self, who only were in the room, knelt down, and we prayed fervently to Him to whom we always turn in our hours of greatest need, and when all human help and comfort fail, and committed her departing spirit to the all-embracing mercy and love of her Saviour. ... In this way, in the African wilderness, died Livingstone's wife and Moffat's daughter, at the close of a long, clear, hot day, the last Sabbath of April, 1862.' She was buried under the gigantic baobab tree, the patriarch of the African plain. Most travellers on that great waterway halt at Shupanga, and reverently visit the grave. In his last journey, Livingstone's thoughts turned to that lonely grave. ' Poor Mary,' he then wrote, ' lies on Shupanga brae, that beeks foment the sun.' He then avowed his preference for a grave like hers, never dreaming that he would receive the most honoured grave which his nation could give to his dust. Sir John Kirk, Livingstone's only surviving fellow- traveller of white colour, writing of Stewart, says : ' We were brought into close contact during Mr?. Livingstone's illness, and together we assisted at the grave when my noble leader, Dr. Livingstone, was present. All this took place many years ago. 70 STEWART OF LOVEDALE but none of us then realised how soon the river was to be opened up as a highway for commerce and civilisation. . . . Beyond the time we met during Mrs. Livingstone's fatal illness, I had then little opportunity of appreciating the high qualities which I afterwards learned he had, when I visited the establishment at Lovedale and enjoyed some pleasant days in his company. His was a most interesting life, full of practical work carried out to the end in the most thorough manner. All he did was well thought out before, and the mission in Nyasaland and the training establishment at Lovedale will always remain as his best monument. Dr. Stewart at that time saw the difficulties but did not despair, and later on it was he who pushed forward the mission-work that has been the pioneer of the many changes that have taken place since.' At this great crisis in his life, Livingstone turned to Stewart for companionship and help. In the evenings they had long conversations about the deathless life beyond the grave. ' We talked,' Stewart writes, 'over the idea of the state of seclusion — the Hades or Intermediate State — and agreed to hold the common belief. He then ex- pressed his willingness to die.' From this time their companionship seems to have been complete. ' Dr. Livingstone,' he writes, 'is peculiarly communicative and agreeable.' Here are some extracts from his Journal while detained at Shupanga : ' I am getting impatient, wishing I were home at some regular work. . . . Am I never to see home again ? . . . Let me not think too much of comfort. Eternity will soon be on us all, then the question will be, what sacrifices in life we have made for Him who sacrificed all? How SELF-EXAMINATION 71 grand a thing it would be if I could have my life filled with the one object, that of doing only what would advance the cause of the everlasting kingdom. But my thoughts turn to earth and to its joys. The unseen and the eternal has not the hold on me it ought to have — that I wish it to have. I have not had too much happiness latterly for a few years back. I wish I had this as an absorbing, all-devour- ing object. ... I am willing to go to Calcutta, yet the whisper of my judgment is against it. . . . My present path is rather a mystery and a difficulty to myself. . . . My mental stagnation is great. I think I am one of the most useless fellows alive. My days are passing, and it seems as if I had an opinion of myself quite at variance with fact. ... I think I can do something when I can do nothing. . . . Accusing myself of being fickle and feeble. But really I could not do anything else. The higher objects of my visit are now put out of my reach, and I do not regard the others as worthy of effort' His Journal reveals the peculiar depression which attends African fever. He writes : ' I was so ashamed of my worldliness, ambitions, selfishness, love of pre- cedence and fiery evil temper, that I could hardly contain myself ... at length had to go on shore and retire among the mangoes. There I asked for grace to overcome these earthly selfish feelings, and merely human cravings, in so far as they interfered with my work. I also sought advice that the future might be a little more clear and less obscure than the present is. . . . Resolve to go off alone up the Shir^, if possible, see and learn what I can, and if possible also up to Tete ; then return homewards, and get to work somewhere. But whatever I do, at home or abroad, I tvill not vegetate. I shall try 72 STEWART OF LOVED ALE to serve God in the way He may be pleased to open up.' ' I have now come to be able to travel with the minimum of baggage — a piece of soap, a towel and a comb.' Livingstone wished to explore the Rovuma (a river to the north of the Zambesi) in the hope of finding an entrance into Central Africa, free from Portuguese control. Stewart found that he would have to wait a whole year if he accompanied Livingstone's expedition. Hungering for a be- ginning and for real work, he resolved to push into the interior. The only white man with him was a member of the Universities' Mission. They had a native canoe dug out of a great tree. It was so nicely balanced as to be easily capsized, and the river was swarming with crocodiles and hippopotami. Stewart had a crew of eight natives, whose steady paddling against the stream drew forth his admira- tion. He passed through the pestiferous ' Elephant Marsh,' a paradise for sportsmen, in which herds of three hundred elephants were sometimes found. His canoe startled great numbers of crocodiles which looked ' like so many trunks of trees left by the receding river.' On one island they counted seventy- two alligators basking in the sun. He visited Bishop Mackenzie's grave, and the ill-fated Universities' Mission. On foot, and usually in company with a member of that mission, he explored the Highland Lake Region on both sides of the Shir^. Concerning his numberless discomforts, hardships, and African fevers, he writes : ' But with a definite purpose and the knowledge that you are certainly clearing the way for a better state of things, and helping to bring in the dawn of a better day of EXPLORING THE SHIRfi HIGHLANDS 73 gospel light, there is a measure of enjcyment even with all the discomfort in canoe voyaging in African rivers.' As he entered the villages ' in his shirt- sleeves, and with an old green silk umbrella over his head, the women startled and the children screamed.' Every night he spoke to them of Jesus Christ, * a phrase never heard by them before, but it was left among them. I gathered all my men round the fire after supper, and spoke to them the things of God. The outline of my talk was God, Sin, Jesus Christ' He records that the native women everywhere showed him the greatest polite- ness and courtesy. He pushed on beyond the Murchison Cataracts, and explored parts of the hill-country to the east of the Shir^, in the district where the Blantyre Mission now stands. He recognised the compara- tive healthiness and rich resources of what is now a prosperous Scottish settlement of coffee-planters, traders, and missionaries. It was a sore disappoint- ment to him that lack of money v/ould not allow him to visit Lake Nyasa, though he was within fifty miles from it. Of this journey he writes: ' Except these two missionary travellers (himself and a member of the Universities' Mission) there was not probably at that time a single white man living east of the Shire River till the coast is reached ; certainly none were settled in the country, and northwards, even as far as Victoria Nyanza, six hundred miles, no trace of a Christian mission, or even of a white man, was to be found. It was a lonely land of barbarism, of game and wild beasts, of timid and harried but not unkindly men, harassed by never-ending slave-raids and intertribal wars. We saw heaps of ashes, broken pottery, a good 74 STEWART OF LOVEDALE many bones but no bodies — the hyenas had attended to that.' On the Shire, as afterwards on the upper reaches of the Zambesi, he supported himself and his men chiefly by his rifle. His menu included, besides the ordinary food of the natives, pigeons, ducks, flamingoes, and hippopotamus steaks. It was his opinion that ' a man with a good sound appetite would enjoy a roast sirloin of hippopotamus.' Many of the districts he visited were sorely stricken with famine, and he was often hunger-bitten. Men travel in that region now with almost all the comforts of home. Before leaving for Africa he had given an address in the Town Hall of Manchester, in which he gave his reasons for hoping that a supply of cotton might be obtained from Zambesiland. This speech had evidently created a real interest. His Journal con- tains a long paper with the title ' Report for Cotton Supply Association, Manchester, in Reply to Queries sent on June 24, 1861.' He found small patches of cotton in the Shir6 valley, and also native weavers, but so lazy were the natives that only about one in twenty was wearing cotton, while all the rest were clothed only with bark, probably the most uncom- fortable garment a human being can wear. The substance of his report was, that the Shir6 valley was admirably fitted for the growing of cotton, but that it could not be cultivated till there was a settled government, and the natives had been taught to work.^ ' The examination of the country, especi- ally of the Shir^ highlands, left the impression of ^ It is now believed that Central Africa has soil capable of pro- ducing cotton enough to keep all the spinning-mills in the world at work. AN EXPLORER'S ADVENTURES 75 its great beauty, the comparative healthiness of the higher districts, and the undoubted fertility of its rich valleys, but it was at that time a land laid waste by slaving wars, as has happened times with- out number to many of the fairest portions of the African continent.' On this expedition he was often grazed by death. Sleeping on the banks of the Shire one night, he awoke to find a large python lying coiled up upon him. He seized his gun, the reptile moved off, and a hole in the ground was the only result of the shot. Once his canoe was upset, and he got entangled with some ropes, and nearly lost his life. When almost drowned, the thought flashed through his mind, 'Well, well, is this to be the end of it all? No, it cannot be.' He made another struggle ; help arrived, and he was saved. On September 25th, 1862, after an absence of three months, he returned to Shupanga, and a fortnight afterwards he started to explore the Zambesi. He visited Senna and Tete, and reached the Kcbrabasa Rapids. Only with great difficulty could he guide the canoe through the labyrinths of small sandy islands, and often his men lost control of the boat, and, like all Africans in trouble, they 'stood calling on their mothers when they should be exert- ing themselves.' 'We spent Christmas Day of 1862 digging with a party of natives into the coal seams, three of which lie on the east bank of the Zambesi, a few miles from Tete. Some specimens of the coal thus dug may possibly still be found in the Museum of the University of Glasgow, as some were sent there on my return. . . . The partition of Africa — the most 76 STEWART OF LOVEDALE stupendous division of the earth's surface which has ever taken place — was then not even thought of.' On foot he examined the country on both sides of the nver, some parts of which reminded him of the Danube. * He did all this,' Livingstone says, 'with most praiseworthy energy, and in spite of occasional attacks of fever.' He was then convinced that any future mission should be northwards on the line of the Shird, and not westwards on the line of the Zambesi. This conviction practically settled the site of the two great missions of Livingstonia and Blantyre. Travel in Central Africa then was travail indeed. Stewart had endured great hardships and suffered severely from numberless attacks of that malarial fever which plays with its victim as a cat plays with a mouse, and which the Africans call ' the father of knees.' Tropical medicine had not then limited its ravages. It had desolated the Universities' Mission, brought down to the grave some who were by his side, and thinned Livingstone's small force. At first he could 'drive off' its attacks, but by-and-by it mastered him, and only did not kill him. But his spirit triumphed over his body, and, like Living- stone in his last years, he would not yield. He believed that activity was the best prophylactic. Once when he rose in the morning he fell on the floor, yet he marched on. Some of the attacks lasted for weeks, and made him unconscious. ' My knees,' he writes, 'are relaxed ; what is the Homeric expression ? Fever and mental depression go as certainly together as fever and sweat.' Still he writes : ' The hardship, fatigue, fever, and hunger I have suffered are nothing in comparison with the end to be gained.' He owns that he had ' the CONTEMPT OF DANGERS 77 malady of thought — looking forward too far ' when in fever, and resolves to fight against ' this subjec- tivity.' He arrived at Shupanga on New Year's Day, 1863, and in a month he turned homewards. ' Considering the way we lived,' he writes, ' the wonder is we were ever free from fever. We carried no tents, but slept in the open when dry, in the canoe when it rained, and its position being down in the river, sometimes alongside a bank of reeds, the sleeper was in the best situation to become well soaked with malaria. Except tea and coffee, we carried no civilised provisions, but depended mainly on what could be got in the country. A little wheaten bread was therefore often the greatest luxury.' It is not easy for us to realise the courage of his enterprise. For weeks he had been battling with the most powerful of terrorising influences — uncer- tainty, the fear of destitution, unknown dangers, home-sickness, solitude, and that terrible fever which magnifies every peril, and weakens all the powers of resistance. But he seems never to have given in. His was the temper of those whom Lowell describes : ' The brave makes danger opportunity ; The waverer, paltering with the chance sublime, Dwarfs it to peril.' In defiance of all his hardships his report regarding the proposed mission was, ' It can be accomplished.' In the beginning of February, 1863, after many vexing delays, he reached Ouilimane. By piecing together his Journal and his letters, we gain a vivid portrait of the wanderer. He is in a canoe with six native rowers ; clad with ' honourable rags,' like Grant and Speke when they emerged from Central Africa, 78 STEWART OF LOVE DALE and like Mackay of Uganda when Stanley visited him ; soaked by four days of ceaseless tropical rains, which had put out the fire in the canoe and damped all the firewood ; all his blankets dripping ; with no cloth and few goods of any value ; less than £^ in his pocket ; half-dead with fever ; his head like a lump of lead, and his eyesight impaired ; solitary, but with his duty j and that was enough for him. When he landed at night, he could hardly walk, and was not sure of any shelter, for not one of his fellow-countrymen was then in the town : there was no hotel, and he knew the name of only one inhabi- tant. During six weary weeks, remote and friendless, he walked daily down to the beach, and looked for a ship coming up the river. At last he got off in a miserable little Indian vessel, and reached Mozambique, where he had to wait other six weeks. One blessed afternoon, the Gorgon sailed into Mozambique, and Stewart was soon on board. He tells how it then fared with him : ' In a very short time I was on the deck of the Gorgon and met Captain Wilson. He stared at me without sign of recogni- tion. Whether I was so much altered that he gazed upon me as if fifteen years had passed instead of fifteen months since we last met, I do not know. But I had to tell him who I was and what I wanted — the favour of being taken on board his ship and landed at any port, south or north, where he might be going, by preference at some British port, whence I might be able to reach home. Nothing could exceed his kindly welcome when he did recognise me.' Captain Wilson described him as being then more 'like a bag of bones than a man.' Scarcely any- thing but the bony framework was left on him. EXPLORER AND EMPIRE-BUILDER 79 This bag of bones the Captain conveyed to East London. At the request of Dr. Duff he visited several missions in Kaffraria. His splendid constitution soon rallied amid the inspiring sea-breezes during the voyage, and the generous and invigorating ozone of that radiant land, ' the white man's sanatorium.' He reached Scotland after an absence of nearly two and a half years of hazardous work. For that work he had not received nor expected any salary. Moreover, out of his patrimony, he had borne more than one-fourth of the whole expenses of the ex- pedition. At the beginning of this chapter it was stated that Stewart's life now broadened into history. That was no exaggeration, for his explorations in Central Africa contributed in several ways to the overthrow of the slave-trade, the expansion of our Empire, and the Pax Britannica. An article in the Scotsman, on May 18, 1899, describes the Protectorate of British Central Africa,^ and adds : ' To two men is that due, in the first instance to David Livingstone, and to Dr. James Stewart.' Stewart thus helped to make the Zambesi what Lord Clarendon desired it to be, ' God's highway for all nations.' And these two years of pioneering fitted him to be the Founder of Livingstonia. With words strangely prophetic, he closes his article in the Sunday Magazine (written in 1874 and 1875, when he was advocating the Livingstonia Mission) : ' To these sketches the practical epilogue is Livingstonia.' After describing the features of ^ Lord Salisbury resolved to form this Protectorate in consequence of information supplied to him at his request by representatives of the Scottish missions in Central Africa. 8o STEWART OF LOVEDALE the combined mission, he adds : ' It would be a centre of civilisation and good government, and even now it would become one of the most effective checks on the slave-trade, by cutting off the supply- in its own home. It would certainly prove more effective than the maintenance of one, or of several ships of war on the coast. ... In a few weeks it is hoped that a compact party under an experienced leader will be on their way to establish Livingstonia. The enterprise is one both difficult and perilous. But nothing great in Africa or elsewhere was ever done but in contempt of danger. ... If God grant His blessing, there is no calculating whereunto the enterprise might reach. It ought to grow and expand, diffusing itself like leaven, reproducing itself like seed, and leading to great and momentous issues.' How soon and how amazingly have these great hopes been fulfilled ! With Stewart, as with his chief, the end of the geographical feat was only the beginning of the missionary enterprise. Elijah's mantle had fallen on the shoulders of the young Elisha, and the heart's desire of the master was granted. CHAPTER IX THE ZAMBESIAN, 1 862-63 His Chief Aim — An Explorer — His Apprenticeship— Two Letters from Livingstone — 'Hell's Highway' — Methods with the Natives — A Good Laugher — Human Brotherhood — How Gods are Made. 'As for me, I am determined to open up Africa, or perish' — Livingstone. ' Trade in Africa has been in two ivories, white and black — slaves and elephants' tusks.' — General Gordon. 'Misfortune, that grand instructress of impatient men.' — Dr. Stewart's Journal. In his Journal Stewart describes himself as *a Zambesian.' He was a Zambesian in that nobler than geographical sense in which a student at Oxford is called an Oxonian. In Zambesiland he served an apprenticeship without which, so far as we can see, he could not have been the successful founder of Livingstonia, nor the pioneer of the East African Mission. His whole after-life was greatly enriched by the unique experiences of these days. While he owed much to Livingstone, he was largely a self-taught expert in African affairs. His admiration of Livingstone was great, and it was the admiration of a kindred spirit. It was his desire to carry forward the moral and missionary side of Livingstone's work. On leaving for Africa he F 82 STEWART OF LOVEDALE wrote : * I give my life to work out his (Living- stone's) ideas if they are practicable, that is, if climate and national position will permit. I have left my chance of a good position at home. Health must be given up to whatever risks, etc., and a huge amount of labour undergone.' Stewart's grand tour during these two wander- years had an immense influence over him. He then gained his diploma as an explorer. His services in this field were fittingly recognised when he was made, like Livingstone, an Honorary Fellow of the Geographical Society. He was among the very last of the interesting order of explorers. For little room is now left in our little planet for the pioneer save amid the snows of the North and South Poles. Tibet was the last of the great explorations possible in this world. The would-be explorer may now, Alexander-like, sit down and mourn that there are no unknown regions to conquer. Stewart, like Livingstone, was a born traveller. African travel was far more dangerous then than it is now. It is plain that he had the courage that can serenely face formless and unknown perils, and is thus greater than the physical courage of the soldier on the battlefield. Strong in him also was that craving to get beyond the limits of the known, which distinguished his Viking forefathers in the Saga times. But his love of adventure and travel was only the obedient and helpful handmaid of a nobler passion. In him the missionary came before the explorer, and both were combined. It was not the Spirit of travel that whispered in his heart, but the voice that still speaks from heaven to him who has an ear to hear, and to which James had responded as he was leaning on his plough. THE TESTS OF AFRICAN TRAVEL 83 His powers had been tested and developed by his hard African experiences. Stanley and other African travellers have noted that African travel reveals a European's character more than any other mode of life does. Stewart endorses that view, for he wrote : ' African travel tries to the utmost every power and quality a man possesses — his temper, teeth and tact, his patience, purse and perseverance, all alike heavily.' These tests helped to make him the strong and self-reliant man he became. He had already gained a rich treasure of African experience which qualified him to speak with decision and authority upon the conditions of travel, life, and missions in that land. He was thus delivered from the tentative timidities and those initial mistakes which brought disaster to more than one mission in Central Africa. No other man in Scotland was then so well qualified as a pioneer of missions, to smooth the path for others. On the Zambesi he was introduced to three men who rendered essential service at the founding of Livingstonia. These were Mr. Edward D. Young, R.N., Captain Wilson, R.N., and the Rev. Horace Waller. His life was enriched through his comradeship with Livingstone, who often said : ' I am very glad that you have come,' ^ and he advised about all the details of the proposed mission. He strongly re- commended Nyasaland as the best centre whence the great Light should shine forth on Darkest Africa. He much desired that 'that most energetic body' (as he called it), 'the Free Church,' would soon 1 When in Bombay, Livingstone 'spoke very kindly of Stewart, and seems to hope that he may yet join him in Central Africa.'— Blaikie's Life of Livingstone, p. 362. 84 STEWART OF LOVEDALE occupy the field. And he gave the strongest possible proof of his appreciation of his young companion. He wrote to him : ' If the Government pays for the Lady Nyasa ' (a steamer built at his own expense), ' I shall be in a position to offer you all your expenses out, and ;^I50 a year afterwards. It will be well- spent money if we check the slave-trade on the lake, whoever pays for it,' So eager was he to see the mission begun at once. In a letter to the Foreign Mission Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, Dr. Livingstone set forth the very serious difficulties a new mission must encounter in Central Africa. He then adds this pregnant postscript : — ^March i, 1862. ' I have shown this (letter) to Mr. Stewart who is now with us, and I would add that my remarks are framed to meet the eyes of the ordinary run of missionaries ; but for such a man as Mr. Stewart I would say there are no serious obstacles in the way.' He also wrote the following letter to Dr.Candlish: — 'Shupanga, Zambesi, March 12, 1862. ' I am happy to inform you that Mr. Stewart arrived off the mouth of this river on the last day of January, and as it appeared that the most satisfactory way of going to work would be for him to come and see the country and people with his own eyes, I invited him to accompany us while trying to take a steamer up to Lake Nyasa. ... I have given Mr. Stewart a hearty welcome and rejoice in the prospect of another mission where there is so much room for work. Nineteen thousand slaves pass annually through the custom-house of Zanzibar, and the chief LIVINGSTONE'S ESTIMATE OF STEWART 85 portion of them comes from Lake Nyasa. We hope to do something towards stopping this traffic, but it is only by Christian missions and example that the evil can be thoroughly rooted out. ' From all I have observed of Mr. Stewart he seems to have been specially raised up for this work, and specially well adapted for it. Before becoming acquainted with him I spoke cautiously, perhaps gave too much prominence to difficulties of which I myself make small account, and may have been led to it by having seen missionaries come out with curious notions ; willing to endure hardships, but grumbling like mountains in labour when put about by things that they did not expect ; but to such a man (Mr. Stewart), I would say boldly, " Go forward, and with the divine blessing you will surely succeed." ' We also add two letters of Dr. Livingstone to Stewart. The first was addressed to ' the Rev. James Stewart in Nubibus, or elsewhere ' : — ' Shupanga, December 24, 1862. * Possibly I underestimate difficulties, and I may not fully realise those which must be encountered by the men who will be honoured to introduce the Gospel into the centre of the slave-market of Eastern Africa. But were I young again, and planning how I could best lay out my life, without hesitation I would go in for this new field of missionary labour. If an efficient minister settles in almost any parish at home, or goes to India or other country where he could enter into other men's labours, the conver- sions that may be attributed to the labours of his life might probably far outnumber those which may result directly from your efforts here. But I believe 86 STEWART OF LOVEDALE that work here would eventually tend most to the advancement of the Kingdom. I undervalue the preaching of the Cross nowhere. The case, however, under consideration seems to be very much that of a professor of theology giving up the pastorate and direct effort to save souls in order that, by preparing other minds for the work, he may indirectly convert a hundredfold more than he otherwise could have done. 'The effects of missions are cumulative. You here begin a work which in influence and power will go on increasing to the end of time. Much good will also be done in the way of eradicating the slave- trade, and in wiping out guilt which we as a nation contracted. Africa must be Christianised from within outwards, and those who help to overcome the great obstacles now presented will, as men speak, deserve the most credit. ... I suppose you have more pluck than that. But do it who will, the Gospel will be planted. ' In conclusion, I would say that, were I in your case, I should place myself without reserve in the hands of my elders — men anxious to do just that which will best promote the cause of Christianity which they have at heart. Taking it as a fact that, if two of such men agree as touching a matter and ask the Hearer of Prayer, the request will be granted, how much more when a large number of Christ's people agree to ask His guidance. Wisdom will, of course, be granted. May the All-Wise One direct your steps.' The second was addressed to Stewart at Quili- manc, 'or wherever he may be found (ou onde estiver).' THE DEVIL'S REIGN ON THE SHIR6 87 ' River Shir6, '■February 19, 1863. ' My dear Sir, — I am very sorry to hear from Mr. Procter that you have been very ill after we left Shupanga, but I hope the change to Vianna's will be beneficial. I was so eager to get up to our work that I may have seemed heartless in leaving you at all, but you appeared to have got over the attack of fever, and I expected you to recover soon, and hoped that you would have experienced the beneficial effects which usually attend a change of residence, in this complaint. I earnestly trust that you are better. 'The country is completely disorganised and a new system must be introduced with a strong hand. We have counted thirty-two dead bodies floating down the stream, and scarcely a soul is to be seen in the lower Shir^ valley. ' I never witnessed such a change. It is a desert, and dead bodies are everywhere. I fear that your friends may find in the deaths and disorders reasons for declining all share in the work of renovation, but it will be done by those who are to do it, and the devil's reign must cease. ' Be sure and let me know how our Free Church- men deal with the important question you will bring before them.' Livingstone also gave Stewart a letter in which he said, ' While confidently recommending him to the kind offices of our countrymen, I declare myself ready to pay any expenses he may incur in his passage to the Cape or homewards.' Stewart fully sympathised with his chiefs detesta- tion of slavery. In 1859 Livingstone explored the 88 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Shird River, which till then had been absolutely unknown, and he also discovered Lakes Shirwa and Nyasa. The Shir^ valley had then a teeming population. Stewart visited it in 1862, and found everywhere traces of desolation. He denounces in the most energetic language the Portuguese who had hired one warlike tribe to enslave their neigh- bours. ' The truth is from the Zambesi to Lake Nyasa on the north and east banks of the river, there is nothing but slaving — Africans selling each other. . . . The Ajawa are in their pay, and attack village after village of the Manganja. They kill the men and sell the women and children. When men are taken, they are sold for five yards of calico (2s. 6d.), women for two yards (is. in value). The Portuguese are at the bottom of all the fighting that has occurred.' In the end of 1862 Livingstone steamed up the Shir^ with the Pioneer, having in tow the Lady Nyasa, which he hoped to launch on Lake Nyasa,^ the key of Central Africa. On every side he found heartrending evidences of recent slave-raiding. The air was darkened with vultures ; hyenas abounded ; bodies too numerous for the over-gorged crocodiles and alligators to devour, floated down the stream and clogged the paddles of the steamers. ' Blood, blood, everywhere blood,' Livingstone wrote in agony of soul. Of such scenes he wrote : * It gave me the impression of being in Hell. ... It felt to me like Gehenna without the fire and brimstone.' To him the slaves' route was ' hell's highway.' Mr. E. D. Young, who was then with Livingstone, told at a meeting in Glasgow that he saw a woman in a slave-gang sinking down exhausted. She had ^ In this he was sadly disappointed. LIVINGSTONE'S ADVICE 89 a load on her head and a baby on her back. The slave-driver asked her if she could go on. She shook her head. He then took her baby, dashed its head af^ainst a tree, flung its quivering body on the ground, and ordered the mother to take up her load. Stewart closely studied Livingstone's methods with the natives. Here is an extract from the report of a speech of Stewart's in 1875: 'Without mentioning any names, he wished, as a man and as an African missionary, to take this opportunity before this venerable Assembly which represented so large a section of public opinion in Scotland, of uttering his solemn protest against all explorations carried on in Africa by means of force and bloodshed. It was necessary to open up Africa, but it was not necessary to leave their footsteps tracked in blood. When first, to quote a line from the " March of the Cameron Men," he " followed his chief to the field " — he meant the great chief of African exploration, David Livingstone, who had traversed more of Africa than any man, living or dead — he had got some advice from him (Dr. Livingstone) which he after- wards followed. That advice was, never to shed blood unless he was certain his own would otherwise be shed ; and with any quite new or strange people, it was better to retire for a little than bring on a collision.' Stewart soon discovered the secret of his master's power over the natives. He soon learnt that the surest way to establish confidence among the Africans was to show it yourself by meeting them with frankness and geniality. In his Journal he writes: 'Simple acts of courtesy and kindness are never lost even among savage people.' Livingstone agreed with Dr. Samuel 90 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Johnson, who held that every man may be judged of by his laughter; with Carlyle, who says that ' no man who has once heartily and wholly laughed, can be altogether irreclaimably bad ' ; and with Sir Walter Scott, who used to say, ' give me an honest laugher.' Whenever he (Livingstone) had observed a chief with a joyous twinkle of the eye accompanying his laugh, he always set him down as a good fellow, and had never been disappointed in him afterwards. ' An ill-natured or vicious fellow would not laugh in that way,' was his remark regarding such a laugher. The clever chief Chibisa, whom Stewart visited, he thus describes : * A jolly person, who laughs easily, which is always a good sign. Chibisa believed firmly in two things : the divine right of Kings, and the impossibility that Chibisa should ever be in the wrong.' . . . Livingstone evidently made a great impression on Chibisa ; like other chiefs he began to fall under the spell of his influence. Concerning another chief Stewart says : ' As a laughing fellow we felt safe with him. If a fellow laughs you know that you are likely to be well off: an ill-natured or vicious man does not, nor do great potentates.' He saw also that Livingstone treated every black man as if he were a blood-relation. He tells that 'Livingstone saluted the poorest with a very pleasant smile, and raised his gold-laced cap (the badge of his high office) a little above his head. Before the poorest African he maintained self-restraint and self- respect as carefully as in the best society at home.'^ ^ I once remarked to an aged woman who knew Livingstone in his youth, that in one of his books he says that he had always used his mother's methods in managing the natives. 'Ay, an' ye may be sure,' she added, ' that Dauvid used his mither's tones tae. He was by- ordinar' saft spoken, and gin ye had shut yer een, ye wad hae thocht that it was juist his mither hersel' speakin', guid woman.' COURTESY TO SAVAGES 91 His keen sense of human brotherhood secured a never-failing princely courtesy towards the blacks. They loved him as the white man who treated black men as his brothers. * If some travellers have en- graved their names on the rocks and tree trunks, he has engraved his in the very hearts of the heathen population of Central Africa. Wherever Livingstone has passed, the name of missionary is a passport and a recommendation.' (Coillard.) Livingstone says: 'When a chief has made any inquiries of us, we have found that we gave most satisfaction in our answers when we tried to fancy ourselves in the position of the interrogator, and him that of a poor, uneducated fellow-countryman in England. The polite, respectful way of speaking, and behaviour of what we call " a thorough gentle- man," almost always secures the friendship and goodwill of the Africans. ... It ought never to be forgotten that influence among the heathen can be acquired only by patient continuance in well-doing, and that good manners are as necessary among barbarians as among the civilised.' Livingstone used to say that it was a very dangerous thing to despise the manhood of the meanest savage, and that some white men he had known had lost their lives as penalty for their scorn. These facts help us to understand how the image of Livingstone is cherished and deified in the tenacious and grateful heart of Ethiopia, and also how men were canonised as saints in the Middle Ages, and how gods were manufactured out of heroic men in the childhood of our race. Full light is shed on this interesting subject in these two admirable books — Coillard of the Zambesi, p. 272, etc., and also Coiilard's On the Threshold of Central 92 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Africa, p. 60. We there learn how Livingstone is clothed with divine virtues, and set forth in celestial proportions. The old people were never tired of talking about him, and they often closed their ' praise-words ' by saying, ' he was not a man, he was a god.' He has already acquired a halo of legendary divinity. Stewart closely resembled his hero in his unfailing reHance upon God and prayer and the Bible in his hours of need. Converse with God in African soli- tudes had fostered his piety, his self-knowledge, and self-reliance. Under the depression of fever he used to calm his mind by prayer, and so restore it to a quiet confidence in God. In one of his journeys he was deserted by many of his carriers who took with them some articles which he needed, and which he could not replace. He thought that he must turn back at once. But on that day he was reading Hebrews xii. i : ' Wherefore seeing we also are com- passed about with so great a cloud of witnesses . . . let us run with patience (endurance, holding on and holding out) the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.' The words came to him as on angel's wings : he marched right on and reached his goal. From the very first he bore himself as a hero of the Dark Continent.^ In the originality of his career, in tenacity of ' There is an exactly parallel passage in Stanley's Darkest Africa, vol. i. pp. 2 and 291. Stanley twice describes this incident at length. He says regarding one of his greatest dangers : ' The night before I had been reading the exhortation of Moses to Joshua, and whether it was the effect of the brave words, or whether it was a voice I know not, but it appeared to me as though I heard, "Be strong and of a good courage." ... I could have sworn that I heard the voice. I began to argue with it, and it replied, "nevertheless, be strong and of a good courage."* GOD'S VOICE IN AFRICA'S SOLITUDES 93 purpose, in his habit of never quaih'ng before difficul- ties, in splendid audacity of programme, in energy, in sanctified common-sense, and in his inexhaust- ible faith in the elevation of the African, Stewart set an inspiring example to missionary pioneers. One of his discoveries was that to him to whom God is a Father, every land may become a fatherland. Central Africa was thus to him what Arabia was to Paul — a retreat in which he examined his own heart, revised his life, developed the self-reliance which is based upon the reliance of faith, and sought complete consecration to Christ and His service. In these great solitudes he had his musing times and seasons of sweet thought, and heard the voice of God more distinctly than elsewhere. ' His faith in God, always strong,' Dr. Wallace writes, ' though not effusive, was strengthened by his experiences of the solitary life in the heart of Africa, entirely cut off from Christian fellowship. In a letter to me written when his only companion was a native boy, he said that he had never felt so near heaven, and added that now to him, " God, holiness and heaven are the only things worth living for." ' ' Pain, sorrow, loss he deemed not wholly ill, But heaven's high solvents to release God's gold In men from base combines, yea to unfold The nobler self of love, faith, Godward will.' CHAPTER X THE STUDENT OF MEDICINE Edinburgh, 1859-61, Glasgow, 1864-66. Native Medicine — African Faith-healing — Ordination — Fellow- students — A Touching Incident — A Beautiful Tribute. ' A medical missionary is a missionary and a half, or rather a double missionary." — Robert Moffat. 'The angelic conjunction of Medicine with Divinity.' — Cotton Mather. ' Christ is the Head of our Profession,' — Sir /. Y. Simpson. ' Heal the sick that are therein and say unto them, the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. ' — Jesus Christ. Eager to equip himself for every side of mission- work, James Stewart began the study of medicine in Edinburgh, immediately after he had left the Divinity Hall. His medical studies were interrupted by his visit to Central Africa, but on his return he resumed them — this time in Glasgow — with growing earnestness. He knew that the foreign missionary must often be a ' medicin malgrd lui,' and that medical skill can open most closed doors in heathen lands. But Africa gave him a new conception of medicine as an ally to the Gospel, while his frequent fevers taught him its unspeakable value for the white man. He then discovered that native medicine is one of the mightiest and most malignant influences in Africa. The doctor there is the priest, the tyrant 04 ^LSy f>i:>inhsion oj iilr. 7'. I'isher Univiii.) A NATIVE WITCH DOCTOR AFRICAN DOCTORS 95 and the terror of the people. ' Quackery and the love of being quacked,' writes Dr. John Brown, 'are in human nature as weeds in a garden.' As Thomas Fuller puts it, 'Well did the poets feign .^sculapius and Circe brother and sister, children of the Sun ! for in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches, old women, and impostors have had a com- petition with physicians.' But the situation is far worse in South Africa, as the witches, impostors, and physicians are all the same and have no rivals or checks. Magic and medicine are wedded, the priest and the doctor are one person, and he causes infinitely more diseases than he cures. At the same time he has some valuable know- ledge in certain directions. He knows the pro- perties, poisonous or curative, of plants unknown to our doctors, has acquired some natural secrets, and has anticipated some modern discoveries. In his own rude way he uses suggestion, mesmerism, and faith-healing, and sometimes, as at Lourdes and other wonder-working resorts, he succeeds : ' for in so far as the disease is a lack of faith,' says a medical authority, 'in just that degree is the cure an act of faith.' Most of the diseases whose seat is in the mysterious border-land between the soul and the body arise from a paralysis of the will-power, and can be cured by anything that rouses the imagina- tion, and coaxes the sick man to throw off his nightmare and work as if he were quite well. All the medicine-man's ceremonies, incantations, and mysterious ongoings are fitted and intended to give the patient a deep impression of power, and to rouse the expectation of a cure. One meets white men in Africa who have been healed by native doctors when 96 STEWART OF LOVED ALE all other remedies had failed, and some white doctors believe in the skill of the natives in the treatment of certain diseases. Still the fact remains that millions have been tortured and killed by native doctors or witch doctors, and that millions have through them had their lives darkened by nameless terrors. What is false in their medicine can be driven out only by the true, and thus European medicine is fitted to overthrow the whole system of African superstition. The union of medical and spiritual work seems reasonable to the African, as his doctor is also his priest. All these considerations intensified Stewart's desire to bring the 'double cure' within reach of the be- nighted Africans, and created in him a voracious appetite for medical knowledge. It should be remembered that he preached regularly during all the years of his medical studies. In February 1865 he was ordained as a missionary by the Free Church Presbytery of Glasgow, but it was arranged that he should remain at home till he had gained his medical degree. He was a very earnest student of medicine. It suited his indi- viduality and gratified his longing to do the whole work of Christ. Its certainties, practicalities, and humanities powerfully recommended it to him. A few of his fellow-students are still alive. They all bear witness to his commanding personality. One of them says that he then believed him to be of Scandinavian origin, and a fine representative of the old Vikings. His diagnosis was correct, though he knew nothing about his ancestry. ' The strength of the impression he made on me,' says another of his fellow-students, ' is revealed by A DEVOTED MEDICAL STUDENT 97 the fact that I have still a very vivid image of him in my memory, while the pictures of all the rest have faded away.' He had a certain aloofness which remained with him through life. It was fostered, if not created, by his complete devotion to his work, and by the fact that he was older than those around him. They wished to get his African stories, but usually they failed. One of the more advanced students succeeded in 'drawing him,' by arranging an ex- change of medical knowledge for African news. He was 'capped' in August 1866. He then re- ceived the degrees of M.B. and CM., gaining special distinction in the classes of Surgery, Materia Medica, and Forensic Medicine. Sir Hector Cameron, a fellow-student who was intimate with him, writes: — 'He was held in great esteem both by his professors and also by his fellow-students, although from disparity of years and consequent difference of daily life and habits, he was in a sense apart from them, and only well known by one or two. He acted as one of the dressers in the wards of Professor (now Lord) Lister, in the Royal Infirmary, at the time when the anti- septic method of wound-treatment, which has so marvellously revolutionised surgical practice, and been so fruitful of benefits to suffering humanity, was just beginning to be evolved by that great surgical genius.' Stewart's aim in studying medicine was to fit him- self for promoting the Kingdom of Christ. The incident recorded in the following letter took place soon after he reached Lovedale, and it proves that he had not studied medicine in vain. ' Having had the privilege, as a child, of sitting 98 STEWART OF LOVEDALE under Dr. Stewart's ministry, I should like to send you the following incident which occurred at our house in Alice, about a mile and a half from Love- dale. My father was District Surgeon there for some years. ' To me then, although a child, Dr. Stewart seemed a second St. John *' whom Jesus loved." His love to Christ seemed to permeate his being, and his tender graciousness to all made him my young heart's ideal of a Christian, and I can still remember a sermon he preached on " Son, remember." ' One evening about forty years ago, there was a hurried knocking at our hall door, and upon opening we found a recent acquaintance whose husband, Major G , was absent for a short time, standing with her little boy in her arms. '"Oh! "she cried, "R has been bitten by a snake." He was a dear little fellow of about four years of age, just promoted to knickerbockers, her only child, as she had lost her baby-boy not long before. ' The little fellow had been bitten in several places, as Mrs. G in her fright had fallen with him, and forehead, leg, and hands all bore marks of the snake's malice. My father was away ! What was to be done? We sent for Dr. Stewart. He came, and remained all night. I can see them now — Mrs. G on her knees by the bedside, the little boy between life and death, and dear Dr. Stewart. He sucked every one of these wounds. He was medical man only for the Mission ; his valuable and busy life could not admit any risks ; his wife and little girl surely claimed his caution personally ; and yet for the passing stranger whose mother-heart was crying so sorely, " Let this cup pass," for the wee unknown A LIVING MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST 99 laddie, whose little life compared to his was as nought, he took in the poison and saved the child. The snake was a puff-adder, and the wounds were venomous enough. * In the morning the little one was sitting up in bed making shadows on the wall with his little fingers. ' This deed was just like Dr. Stewart. It sank into my young heart, and the memory of not only lovely words, but lovely actions — quite apart from his daily mission -work at Lovedale — has been one of the deepest joys of my life, for he was the first true living manifestation of Christ I ever knew, the first whose whole life and ways shed abroad the fragrance of Christ, and from whom the " sweet savour" went, not only up, but abroad. In him there was an utterly selfless manifestation of the love of God. It was what he was in Christ as well as what he did, that seemed to reveal so clearly the "heights and depths, lengths and breadths," which he had searched and rejoiced in. He was a living witness of the wonderful love of Christ who loved him and died for him, and whom alone he desired to glorify. What impressed me as a child in his preaching was the reality, not only of his message, but of his knowledge of Christ as a living person. I always thought of him as one who had heard and answered fully Christ's words, "Follow thou me." My last remembrance of the Scotch Church at Alice was hearing Dr. Stewart speaking there upon Livingstonia, and his purposed work. I remember that he said that this had been upon his heart for fifteen years. I certainly owe to Dr. Stewart my first clear sight of Christ in all His beauty, and if in any measure I have been able to tell of Him loo STEWART OF LOVEDALE in other lands, by pen or act, it has been owing greatly to this revelation of Christ to me in my early days. 'L. A. H. Sarrazin, nie Spranger.' The puff-adder is one of the most dangerous of serpents. Experts say that its venom is com- pounded of a nerve poison and a blood poison, which would probably prove fatal to a doctor suck- ing it, if there were a tiny scratch on the skin inside his mouth. In his Pastoral Theology Vinet makes the follow- ing statement : — ' The danger which may attend frequent visits to sick persons, in cases of epidemic or contagion, is usually in the inverse ratio to the courage and devotion of the pastor. Do not flee from danger and then danger will flee from you.' Stewart makes the following marginal comment : — * This page assumes the simple fact that the minister must risk his life in this way. Well, it may be right — "we are immortal till our work is done." There are circumstances, however, in the determination of this matter not to be left out.' Yes ; and circum- stances which must often be left out as they lie beyond our ken. For example, the boy whose life Stewart saved became his son-in-law. UK. JAMES STEWART Ai.H 40 THE liEGINXING OF LOVEDAI.E CHAPTER XI STEWART OF LOVEDALE, 1 867- 1 874 Marriage — At Lovedale— Origin of the Mission — The Mother- idea — The New Lovedale — The First Fees — The First Child of Lovedale. ' Honour the beginner, even though the follower does better.' ' Height is not reached in a hurry. ' —Kafir Sayings. 'While we are entirely Presbyterian, we are also entirely and openly undenominational. We are both colour blind and denominationally blind.' — Dr. Stewart. ' Lovedale Mission Station, the best of its kind in South Africa.' — Molyneux' s ' Campaigning in South Africa.' In November, 1866, Dr. Stewart was married to Mina Stephen, youngest daughter of Alexander Stephen, shipbuilder, Dundee and Glasgow. Ac- companied by Miss (now Dr.) Jane Waterston, as Principal of the Girls' School, they arrived at Love- dale on January 2, 1867. The Rev. John Knox Bokwe, then a little Kafir lad, thus describes that arrival : — * As a lad of eleven or twelve years old, the writer, along with three companions from the native village, heard of the arrival at Lovedale of a new missionary accompanied by two ladies. Heavy rains had fallen during the week, and these little boys felt some pleasure in puddling the muddy pools of the main street that passed the house where the new arrivals lived. We were anxious to get a sight of them, and 101 I02 STEWART OF LOVEDALE be the first bearers of news to our parents what they looked like. A thick pomegranate fence partly hid the front view of the mission-house, and it was not easy from the street to gain the object of our visit unless by entering a narrow gateway which led into the house. Halting there, the quick ear of one of the little fellows was arrested by sounds which he thought never to have heard before. He stood still to listen, while his mates continued their puddling excursions. At the gate, the listener stood en- tranced at the music strains coming from within. Peeping in to explore, he saw a young lady seated before a musical instrument.^ The lower sash window was open. The temptation to the dusky, mud-bespattered lad to enter the gate, even at the risk of rudeness, was too strong for him. The lady observed his slow, frightened approach, and quickly wiped off something trickling down her flushed cheek. The music was " Home, sweet Home." No wonder the tear! Recovering herself, with a win- some smile she encouraged the intruder to come nearer.' Thus began the friendship with the Kafir who, for twenty years, filled the post of private secretary to Dr. Stewart. The names of * Stewart ' and ' Lovedale ' have been wedded for forty years, and this is the title by which he will be remembered, so long as men can appreciate Christian heroism. It was very like Stewart to explain that the name of Lovedale was not given from any sentimental reason, or because the place was some happy valley where love was more common than elsewhere. It was named after Dr. Love of Glasgow, one of the earliest promoters of Foreign Missions. After the * It was in a thatched house, which had no bedstead. THE PLANTING OF LOVEDALE 103 same fashion names were given to many of the neighbouring missions — Burnshill, Pirie, Blythswood, Rainy, Main, Somerville, Macfarlane, Gordon Memo- rial, etc., etc. This habit is indigenous to the soil: witness Rhodesia, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Port Elizabeth, Alice, etc., as also the names of streets. Lovedale lies near the eastern boundary of Cape Colony, 700 miles N.E. of Cape Town and 80 miles N. of East London. It is on the western edge of what was Independent Kafraria, the home of the Kafir race before they became British subjects. It has been often desolated during the nine Kafir wars. Thrice has the mission-work been interrupted by war, while the class-rooms were turned into barracks. What is now the mission land was originally the military station of Fort Hare, on the banks of the beautiful river Tyumie. The site was then a barren veldt, with bare hill- sides and a flat valley covered with mimosa-trees. But Lovedale has completely verified Darwin's saying, ' The presence of the missionary is the wand of the magician.' The traveller could scarcely find in South Africa a more beautiful or better kept spot than Lovedale. It now literally blossoms like the rose. A Scottish visitor wrote, ' The Lovedale build- ings are prettily nestled among the grassy hills, reminding us of Moffat.' In the early twenties, a mission was planted in that valley by representatives of the Glasgow Mis- sionary Society. The Church of Scotland, then dominated by moderatism, was not prepared to espouse Foreign Missions. After some twenty years, the necessity for the training of native agents had become apparent. Thus in the year 1841, the Love- dale Missionary Institute was founded by the Rev. I04 STEWART OF LOVEDALE W. Govan, an admirable missionary and education- alist. He began with only eleven natives and eight Europeans, the sons of missionaries, magistrates, and traders, for whom there were then no schools within convenient reach. It was a day of very small things, but despise it not. Among these eleven natives was a herd-boy, the son of a raw Kafir, and clad in sheepskin. He became a cultured Christian gentleman, received a complete university training at Glasgow, was the first ordained preacher of the Kafir race, and the first translator into Kafir of the Pilgrim's Progress. A learned and eloquent preacher, he gained the entire respect, both of the natives and the Europeans. The opening day of the tiny Boarding School was the birthday of a new era for the native races. Then for the first time in South Africa the prin- ciple was adopted and avowed that blacks and whites should meet in the same classes, and dine in the same hall, though at different tables.^ This was the first practical recognition that the Africans are our fellow-men ; that they have the rights of British subjects, and must be treated according to the laws of the Empire ; and that earnest efforts must be made for the healing of racial prejudices. This was an entirely new thing in South Africa, and there was not then such a full recognition of the native anywhere else, in Africa or America, in educational circles or in Christian churches. Lovedale and Blythswood have been from their origin embodi- ments of the precept * honour all men ' in its applica- tion to the natives. Mr. Govan invented a new thing in philanthropy, which Stewart enlarged and ' This is due to the fact that the whites pay a larger sum for board than the natives do, and receive more costly food. THE MISSIONARY AS NAVVY 105 perfected. This new thing was very old, for it was the application of the principle of the common origin of the race. In accepting Lovedale, Stewart had expressly stipulated that if a mission were planted in Nyasa- land, he should be at liberty to join it. In describing his first year in Lovedale, Stewart says, ' I hardly think I read a book quite through in 1867. My student life had to be set aside for a time, and I had to work within the Institution, and outside like a navvy on the roads, which were still the untouched primeval soil of Africa.' Through life he was a great road-maker : he must find or cut a straight path to everything he had to do with. Mr. Govan retired in 1870, and Stewart, as Prin- cipal, was then at liberty to mould the Institution. There are three stages in the history of Lovedale — Reconstruction, Expansion, and Consolidation. The period of Reconstruction was from 1870 to 1874. Stewart began in Lovedale with one idea, but it was what the French call 'a mother-idea,' and it gave birth to a very large family. This mother- idea was his own and original, and loyalty to it through life saved him from vacillation and mere trial- work. Probably in 1870 no other person cherished the same idea in the same form, and was prepared to realise it. His aim was to uplift the native by touching him at every point, instructing him in all the arts of civilised life, and fitting him for all Christian duties. As an original Educa- tionalist he is entitled to rank alongside of Dr. Alexander Duff of Calcutta.^ In his own sphere * His letters to Dr. Duff in 1864 show that the plan which he adopted was matured at that early date, and that it was not essentially modified by after-thought. io6 STEWART OF LOVEDALE he was at least as great an Imperialist as Rhodes, for his ambition soared to an intertribal, interstate, and interchurch university, where the most gifted of the natives of South Africa might receive an education that would fit them for the higher walks of life. As a leal-hearted son of John Knox, he wished to have church and school side by side, to provide a sound elementary education for all native children, and to make an open path from the school to the college within reach of every scholar 'of pregnant parts.' And he had the daring to plan all this for heathen Africa. Before he died he had the satisfaction of knowing that his idea had been accepted by many of the leading statesmen south of the Zambesi, while the ' Lovedale method ' had been adopted in all the large missionary institutions in the land. He saw clearly what the native races needed, and began to provide it with remarkable far-sightedness, wisdom, and perseverance. After a hard struggle, he discontinued the teaching of Latin and Greek, and adopted English as the classic.^ Like every man who is in advance of his age, he had to fight every mile in his marches towards reconstruction, but he was inspired by his vivid vision of the things that were coming. * Genius conceives, talent executes,' Abraham Lincoln has said. Stewart had ^ Captain Younghusband — now of Tibet fame — when visiting Love- dale in the nineties, asked a native if he was satisfied with the educa- tion there. 'No,' he replied, 'they are not teaching our children Greek and Latin. Dr. Stewart says that English is to be our Greek and Latin.' This was a sore point with the natives for some time. They thought it a hardship that they could not get a full European education. They regarded Greek and Latin as among the chief charms of the white men and the hall-mark of gentlemen, and they wanted to know why they had been deprived of them. GENEROUS HELPERS 107 the genius to conceive, and the talent to realise the greatest and most beneficent scheme that has yet been devised for the elevation of the African races. In this he stood alone among the men of his time. At first, most people, and among them some of his colleagues, believed that a mere mirage was alluring him into the desert of utter failure. Opposition was just what was needed to make him take off his coat. His was the trained self-reliance of a strong and fully persuaded man, and few were ever more amply dowered with tenacity of purpose. With him the last moment of conviction was the first moment of action. He had a wonderful power ot getting things done even by the natives, and a wonderful faculty for getting shrewd business men to believe in him, and entrust money to him. Among his relatives and personal friends were several who were able and very generous helpers, and he got not a little support from men who did not belong to his own Church.^ The aim was to give the native, not a mere storage of information, but a practical training of brain, eye, hand, and heart. Lovedale soon became a hive of many industries. ^ In Dawn in the Dark Continent, we find the following foot- note (194) : — ' The Builders of Lovedale. — The names of the chief benefactors are as follows : — The late Mr. D. P. Wood, Natal and London ; the late Mr. John J- Irvine, a member of the Legislative Assembly, Cape Colony; Sir William Dunn, London and Port Elizabeth, M.P. for Paisley; Sir John Usher of Norton; John Stephen, Esq., Glasgow; the late James White, Esq., of Overtoun ; Lord Overtoun ; John S. Templeton, Esq., Glasgow ; James Templeton, Esq., Glasgow ; Harry W. Smith, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh; and many other generous donors. 'The excellent Christian man whose name stands at the head of the above list, Mr. D. P. Wood, merchant, of Nalal and London, sent ;^5ooo in two donations, without one word of solicitation.' io8 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Dr. Stewart brought skilled artisans from Scotland, and new buildings arose around him. The growth was steady and even rapid. He then set himself to get fees from the native boarders, and made a great and fruitful discovery. The natives did not see what good ' working book ' or ' speaking from a book ' — their phrases for reading — could do to the children. They concluded that it must do good to the missionary, and that their children should be paid for it. The school seemed to them like a prison, and they considered that their children should be rewarded for sitting all day in a house and * making a book ' for the white man. The pupils were at first drawn to the school by presents of beads, buttons, and brass wire — the currency of the country then.^ Stewart had a two days' palaver with the natives about fees. At last a man, Nyoka, arose and said, ' I will pay £4 for my son.' In after-years Stewart often thought gratefully of that man as the fair beginner of a nobler time. He then stood alone in the persuasion that the natives would pay for education. It was a new and daring idea. A ^ The missionaries at Livingstonia had a similar experience. After they had mastered two or three letters of the alphabet, the scholars said that they were tired, and they took a rest for a fortnight or three weeks. In some of the schools the teachers kept a jar of syrup or treacle, with a stick in it. They gave every scholar a lick of the savoury stick, and so introduced them to the 'sweets of literature.' A scholar, when catechised, would say that his teeth were tired, and that he could not answer the missionary any more. The native workmen were paid to build a house. The schoolboys then came and said that they must be paid to learn as the others were paid to build. The teachers declined, so the boys struck and left school. After a while the boys came back and asked for pay. * No,' was the reply, ' but if the better scholars teach the younger, we will pay them.' This suited the boys, who began as monitors. In this way the monitorial system was introduced into the Livingstonia schools, EPOCH-MAKING EVENTS 109 uniform fee was introduced for all natives of what- ever Church, and all denominations were put on the same level, though all the missionaries at Lovedale then belonged to the Free Church of Scotland. The payment of fees was an excellent education of the natives in independence and honesty. Ex- perts say that the character of the native is injured when he receives education gratis. The aim was to make the Christian religion supreme without respecting denominational differ- ences. At the same time he did nothing to weaken the denominational connections or preferences. He thus gained the entire confidence of all the Protestant churches, and they gladly placed their students under his care. Stewart says : ' All de- nominations and a dozen tribes have been repre- sented at one time or another within the place, some coming from even as far as the Zambesi, . . . But broad Christianity does not mean lax Christianity.' Another epoch-making feature in the new Love- dale was the admission of native girls, and their training for all domestic work. A lady thus describes her visit to the new Love- dale : — * A very bright, happy spirit pervades the place, and the radiant, intelligent faces of many of the natives, and their quiet self-possession, were very striking. It is a hive of industry, and yet one feels that the spiritual side is never neglected. Dr. Stewart is a big-hearted and most lovable man. A most happy spirit pervades all the staff.' During the four years from 1870 to 1874, the numbers had steadily risen from 92 to 480, and the fees from nothing to ;^200, ^^400, ;f8oo, and ;^i30o. The humble thatch church at Lovedale, which may no STEWART OF LOVED ALE have cost ;^ioo, had now grown into many large buildings. Many other colleges have risen after the model of Lovedale, but they are all either tribal or de- nominational. Lovedale, Blythswood, and Emgwali still remain the only missionary institutions which rise above all tribal and denominational barriers, and present the note of universality. In 1870 Stewart's co-operation was secured for the establishment of the Gordon Memorial Mission at Umsinga in Natal, near the Tugela, about one hundred miles north of Petermaritzburg and thirty-five from Dundee.^ The Honourable James Gordon, brother of the present Earl of Aberdeen, and grandson of the great chief who once wielded the destinies of the British Empire, had resolved to devote his life to the work of Christ among the heathen in South Africa. His purpose was, however, frustrated by his early death in 1868. In a letter to a friend in the end of 1863, he said : ' The old year will soon be gone. Last New Year's Eve, I went to bed with scarcely a thought of my soul. But the very next day, by ^ On this errand Stewart rode about one thousand miles in a very rough countiy and in districts little known, sleeping at any house, shop, or hut he could find. He spent one night in an outside hide store, and another in a miserable house, where he got for supper ' apparently salt beef or salt horse perhaps ; but at any rate it was very good, as I was very hungry.' He asked to be allowed to sleep on the clay floor of the kitchen under the table, as it was better than the veldt. On another iiighl he came to a German mission-house that was shut up. He managed to get in somehow. Seven or eight years afterwards a German missionary on board a steamer told Stewart how, during his absence, his house had been commandeered. ' Did the intruder be- have himself well and pay for what he took ? ' Stewart asked. ' Oh yes,' replied the German, 'he left money on the table.' ' I was that man,' Stewart added. BIRTHDAY OF A SOUL AND A MISSION in the grace of God, I was brought to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Yes, New Year's Day, the birthday of the year, is the birthday of my soul.' It was also the birthday of a very interesting mission, and the first child in the Love- dale family of missions. The Countess of Aberdeen and her family resolved to found a mission among the Zulus, in memory of the deceased, and they entrusted it to the Free Church of Scotland.^ Stewart had now laid the foundations upon which he was to build during the next thirty years. The period of reconstruction was over, and the time of expansion had begun. But events of the highest moment were soon to withdraw him from Lovedale. Before attempting to rehearse these exploits, a story must be told which claims a foremost place in the romance of liberality and Christianity. ' See The True Nobility : Sketches of the Life and Character of Lord Haddo, and of his Son, the Honourable J. //^ H. Gordon,' by Dr. Alexander Duff. CHAPTER XIP THE FATHER OF BLYTHSWOOD, 1873-18^ A Novel Appeal— A New Mine of Liberality — Native Oratory — A Grand Function — The Rev. R. W. Barbour's Report — Blythswood To-day. ' This work is an answer to the statement often made that the natives are unimprovable. We who work with you know better. There is the same limitless improvement possible to the natives as to any men of any colour God has made,' — From Dr. Stewart's Speech at Blythswood. To the east of Cape Colony, and alongside of the great Kei River, lies Fingoland, the Transkeian home of the Fingoes, They are the broken remnants of tribes scattered during the endless intertribal wars. Fifty years ago they were sunk in degradation and slavery. But ere long a great change vi^as wrought among them. They discovered the value of educa- tion and turned wistfully to Lovedale for a model, and for help to realise it. Pupils of Lovedale were living among them, and they wished that their own sons and daughters might also learn the arts of civilisation. The Fingoes were encouraged and guided in their aspirations by their magistrate, Captain Blyth, and the Rev. Richard Ross of Toleni. Early in 1873 they appealed to Stewart to plant 1 The following books have been consulted for this chapter : — African Wastes Reclaimed, by Robert Young ; Dawn in the Dark Continent, and Light in Africa, by the Rev, James Macdonald (for ten years Principal of Blythswood). 112 A CHILD OF LOVEDALE 113 among them a second or minor Lovedale. 'A child of Lovedale,' as they called it in their poetic fashion, and a 'shadow of rest for their children.' Stewart hesitated. He was then overburdened with the growing work at Lovedale, and the road to Fingoland was a three days' journey, very rough and sometimes dangerous. He was not sure that the hour had come for such extension. However, here were Ethiopia's hands outstretched to him, and he felt that his outstretched hands should meet theirs. With some hesitation he started from Lovedale, but at King William's Town, a whole day's drive from the Kei, he shut himself up for a day in his room, and next morning turned his horses' heads home- wards. That resolution or want of resolution was the real foundation of Blythswood. He decided to test the people and especially their leaders before committing himself. He afterwards visited them, met with their head-men, and promised that he would help them if they raised ;^iooo as a proof of their sincerity and earnestness. It was an audacious proposal. The idea was entirely new to the natives, many of whom were violently opposed to Christianity. They had never before been asked to contribute to a piece of mission-work. After four or five months, a telegram reached Stewart: ' Come up, the money is ready.' At a public meeting of the whole Fingo tribe, it had been resolved that every man liable to be taxed, should contribute five shillings towards the proposed building. This was the birth certificate of a new era, and a more im- pressive tribute to Lovedale could not be imagined. Stewart then visited the tribe. The meeting was held in the veldt, as no building in the district was H 114 STEWART OF LOVEDALE large enough for the great throng of men, women, missionaries, and children. On a deal table standing on the grass lay a shining heap of silver, over ;^i45o. The substance of the native-speaking that day was given in a sentence by one of their orators. Point- ing to the money, he said, ' There are the stones ; now build.' This was a very wonderful achieve- ment among a heathen tribe in which there was only a very small minority of Christians. Stewart drove off to King William's Town, with £1450 in silver tied in a sack behind his trap. ' The silver was heavy,' he said, ' but my heart was light.' It will be better both for the reader and the writer to tell the whole story of Blythswood in this chapter. Stewart there 'struck oil,' and thrice it burst up responsive to his touch. This was the biggest sum ever given by natives. He had discovered an unsuspected mine of liberality. It was as definite a discovery as that of gold on the Rand, of diamonds at Kimberley, or of Cullinan when, prospecting for coal on the brown moors near Pretoria, he located the Premier Diamond Mine and the Cullinan Diamond. The building was begun in 1875. Stewart then returned from Scotland, bringing with him four masons from Aberdeen, and ;i^i50O in fulfilment of his promise. In giving thanks for this gift one of the chiefs said, * We shall best please our friends in Scotland by doing our utmost to help forward this school, and by sending our children there, and doing all we can to become a God-fearing, loyal, and civilised people.' As the building grew, the people desired that it should be made larger. 'Very well,' said Stewart, 'let us have another subscription.' There was / .\- /) I .1 .V SOUTH-EAST AFRICA Hojaar >--^ Su A GREAT FUNCTION AND FEAST 115 another meeting, speeches, and more thanks, and more trouble in carrying all the silver (about ;^I500) to the nearest Bank, which was about one hundred miles away. The Institution was called Blythswood, after Captain Blyth, one of the ablest of British adminis- trators and a 'thorough Christian of the working kind.' He gained the affections of the people, and when he died, they spent ;^S0O in completing the unfinished tower of the building as a memorial to him. The Institution, which is about one hundred and twenty miles east of Lovedale, was opened in July 1877. A national character was given to the event. The natives have a real genius for public functions and feasts, but it is not gratified now as it used to be when their chiefs and counsellors had supreme power. The newspapers of the day say that about four thousand natives and a large number of Europeans and missionaries were present.^ The building was decked with fluttering flags. The pro- ceedings were opened by public worship, and addresses followed. Many of the natives spoke and spoke well. ' Even the women,' it is said, ' were unable to keep silent, and spoke with effect.' The Kafir women are better orators than the men, though almost every native is a ready speaker. But the women have clearer voices than the men and manage them better, and their language is usually more beautiful. When a woman begins to speak, she usually secures dead silence and great attention. At such gatherings they use great ingenuity to get a man to speak who does not intend to do so, for, ^ Captain Blyth wrote, expressing his regret that he could not be present. Nothing, he said, had ever given him greater pleasure than his connection with the Institution. ii6 STEWART OF LOVEDALE according to native etiquette, a man cannot speak without making a contribution, though he may con- tribute without speaking. One native orator after another made loyal speeches, and finished by laying a contribution on the table, or by promising to send a sheep, a goat, or an ox. About ;^300 was then contributed in money or kind.^ The natives expressed their willingness to give another subscription to clear off the whole debt. The function was closed with a general and generous feast in the right royal Kafir style. They slaughtered twelve sheep, twelve goats, and over twenty oxen, and they had an enormous supply of Indian corn (maize), bread, and coffee. The buildings cost over ;^7000, and provided accommodation for one hundred and twenty native, and thirty European boarders. The native com- mittee in charge of it was composed of four magis- trates and thirteen head-men, who were associated with the European missionaries. Blythswood was open scarcely a year when the fourth Kafir war broke out. The building, which was of stone, and by far the largest and strongest in the whole district, was converted into a fort, and used for some months as a place of refuge for about one hundred and forty Europeans, with their families, who then formed the small white population of the Transkei. In 1 878 there was a debt on Blythswood of ;^i6oo. When Sir Bartle Frere mentioned the fact to one of the head-men, he replied, 'That thing about the * Principal Lindsay of Glasgow tells that on a similar occasion he saw a portion of the collection running away with the beadle, who was pulled round the corner by ri lively sheep he was trying to halter. CONCERNING THE COLLECTION 117 Seminary is already settled, we are going to pay all the debt when it is called for.' And they did. Dr. Stewart had another large gathering with the natives. Captain Blyth and he gave £2^ each, and the natives gave the rest. Captain Blyth described this as ' a brilliant page in their history.' ^ The Rev. R. W. Barbour of Bonskeid, who spent the first year of his married life in South Africa, and assisted Stewart at Lovedale, published in the Christian Week very interesting accounts of the meet- ing at which the natives cleared off this debt in 1880. He was greatly impressed by the immense crowd of native horsemen who assembled to give Stewart such a welcome as they used to give only to their greatest chiefs. ' They rushed down the hill like the thunder of a torrent in spate, with dust and noise. Five hundred and twenty went past, besides foals in proportion, who kept their places in the procession and enjoyed it vastly. ' The great hall was crammed. All were wearing an aspect of vivacity, earnestness, and cheerfulness, such as seems never to fail the African race. They were almost all head-men. The most beneficent forces that the world has known seemed to be livingly exhibited here, in contact with the material most in need of them, most conscious of its need, and promising most from the influence of them. ' While they were being arranged, one after another of those in arrear would step up with a grave and dignified mien, and, slowly undoing his purse or handkerchief, take from it the half-crowns or gold ^ The native contributions to the buildings at Blythswood amounted to over £i,SC>Q. To the end of his life, this noble gift of the Fingoes lived in Stewart's memory, and gave to his words a touch of intense feeling and unchanging admiration. Ii8 STEWART OF LOVED ALE it held. These were watched by their fellows with interest but no curiosity : they are a singularly self- possessed people. After a time silence was made among the audience, which was kept, with intervals of applause, for nearly four hours. Captain Blyth asked one of the native men to engage in prayer, which was done fervently but briefly, and closed in a general loud " Amen." Then the speaking began. The Captain talked in an easy but forcible way, roll- ing out his speech in short, pithy sentences. These the Rev. Mr. Ross took up and twined into flowing Kafir, seemingly enlarging upon his original, unless the language did this of its own genius, which re- sembles that of the Ancient Mariner in expecting you to sit under it for hours. Then he bade the magistrates read their reports. One of them told us he had fourteen thousand souls in his district, that they had collected £^^$0, and would make it ;^500. Every man had given his five shillings. They had most of them only the little beehive huts to live in, yet they made the effort, and brought their last contribution to this their great house, which they had built for themselves and their land and their children, dedicating it to the future welfare of the native people of the Transkei. ' After each magistrate had given in his account, Dr. Stewart rose. His rising was the signal for re- newed and closer attention. With his great stature and broad, square shoulders, he looked in the people's eyes and in ours a natural " king of men " every inch of him. You could see this, but he did not seem to see it or take any advantage of it, except that of the royalty in look and influence which it forces on all who have it. For as he warmed to his work and spoke out unmistakably in defence of mission and AN INSPIRING SPEECH 119 education labour among the natives, and flung down the gauntlet to the many here who rail against any- thing done for them, and stop it when they can, one felt that his greatness lay in his being a man, and that this gave him greater power over the men, black before him and white beside him, than any robes of office or investiture of human authority. But he spoke throughout as a Christian man, not more sore and smitten with the unrighteousness of Europeans and their contempt of Africans than solemnised by the shortness of life as a time for doing good, and the pressing reality of the need of the Gospel, both for ruler, subject, and magistrate, as well as Fingo. It was grand to see the Gospel in its true place, towering over rulers and authorities, and commanding the honour of all as the Doctor spoke. He did not flatter the natives or accuse the English ; he neither instigated the one nor insinu- ated against the other. He dealt in even-handed justice to all. He spoke in short, nervous sentences, but you could as well gather his speech from what you will find in the Mercury, as you could make out our Gladstone's greatest power from his printed words. In both the supreme effect is produced by the flexion of their face when seized by passion and at burning heat. The exquisite, almost dramatic, sarcasm which gathers up the face into a fasciculus of wrinkles, is a thing quite palpable but not describ- able. The pleasure, the confidence of these men in the Doctor was delightful. It was the shout of a king among them when he closed. They then answered for themselves. 'With difficulty Dr. Stewart toiled out of the hall, having his huge bag in his arms containing ;^iioo, mostly in silver. As we climbed the hill I20 STEWART OF LOVED ALE with him in his spider, we heard now and then a handful of horsemen thundering up behind us, riding at breakneck pace and waving Good-night. In a second they were a speck on the ridge against the night sky. In a second more it was silence. Wc rolled along over endlessly rolling wolds like the green downs of South England, or the moors at Wanlockhead, where nothing broke the monotony till it reached the rugged black buttresses to north and west, which form the banks of the Kei.' In 1890 the Rev. James Macdonald wrote: 'To- day the Fingoes of Transkei are half a century ahead of their countrymen in wealth, intelligence, and material progress, agricultural skill, sobriety, and civilised habits of life, both in food, clothing, and dwellings ' {Light in Africa, p. 49). Blythswood was an effect and a cause of that happy revolution. The reason why the Fingoes have outdistanced the other tribes is that as slaves they were inured to labour, and thus discovered the value of their ser- vices. When set free they went into European employment, and imitated the European farmer in their methods of agriculture. They were also among the first to discover the advantages of education. Of Blythswood, Stewart wrote with his extreme dislike of exaggeration : ' It has been a place of intellectual light to many, and perhaps of spiritual light to some.'^ 1 The Rev. D. D. Stormont, M.A., LL.B., L.C.P., Lond., the Principal of Blythswood, has kindly furnished the following statement regarding the present position of the Institution : — ' The staff of Blythswood number i8 in all, of whom ii are Europeans and 7 are natives. In 1907 the pupils in the Training School numbered 160. These were preparing for the examinations for teachers. The total number in the various schools was about 370. ' There are ten branches in the Institution. The first is the Church. A PROSPEROUS MISSION 121 One of the Blythswood missionaries reports that twenty years ago the Fingoes reah'sed in perfection More than half of the pupils who attend the Church are communi- cants. ' In the Training School, four European teachers are employed for the ordinary branches of knowledge, and two special teachers, one for woodwork, and one for needlework. This department aims at the training of teachers according to the three years' course of the Education Department of the Cape Colony. A pupil-teacher remains three years in the Training School before he obtains the teacher's certificate of the third class. When he passes the final examination, he readily gets an appointment at £/iO a year, and can rise to ;^ioo or ;^iio after several years' service. ' There is also a Practising School, which is conducted by native teachers under European supervision, and in which the pupil-teachers receive their practical instruction in teaching. ' Twenty-eight native boys, from seventeen to twenty-one years of age, are apprenticed in the Boys' Industrial Department, which is devoted to the teaching of woodwork, carpentry, painting, and build- ing construction. ' In the Girls' Industrial Department, the girls are taught domestic work, including needlework, laundry, housekeeping, cookery, and domestic economy. They are under the supervision of a certificated teacher and trained teacher of domestic economy. As servants, their wages are three or four times more than are given to servants of the ordinary class. 'In the public examinations during the years 1901-6 the pupils gained nearly a thousand certificates. * The Farm Department is supervised as extra work by one of the members of the European staff. The Government gave to the Institution title-deeds for a grant of iioo acres. The farm has now a flock of 400 sheep. It is being extended with the view of contribut- ing to the expenses of the Institution, ' The Blythswood Book-room supplies the Institution and the district with books and stationery. 'The Boys' Boarding Department can accommodate 150 boys. 'The Girls' Boarding Department accommodates 100 girls. The majority of the boarders are pupil-teachers in the Training School. 'The financial turn-over of all the departments amounts on an average to ;^io,ooo a year. The work has been conducted at a minimum cost, not only to the natives, but also to the Church. According to the recent returns, the value of the mission property at Blythswood is ;i^20,ooo.' 122 STEWART OF LOVED ALE the old line, * Round about the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran ' ; but now they are decently clad, they work diligently, and prize education highly. At the last census about one-half of the tribe returned themselves as Christians, and they recently voted ;^ 10,000 for the Inter-State Native College. CHAPTER XIII THE FOUNDER OF LIVINGSTONIA/ 1874-1875 A First Love— The Burial of Livingstone— A New Word— The First Mission Party— The Murchison Rapids— The Ilala—K World's Wonder, ' Low tide is not the best lime to launch the ship. Some influences, as little capable of analysis as an instinct, seemed to draw or push me on.' — Dr. James Slewart. 'The dawn does not come twice to awaken a man.' — African Proverb. ' I can because I ought.' — Words carved by Casfari upon his desk. Stewart's biography now brings us to a landmark in the history at once of missionary enterprise and of imperial expansion. After eight years of un- broken service, he came home, not on furlough, but in order to raise ;^io,ooo for the enlargement of the buildings at Lovedale, and also to secure ;^i500 for the mission at Blythswood, as he had promised to the Fingoes to raise pound for pound with them. A mission in Central Africa was, as he used to say, his 'first love,' and during his seven years in Lovedale, he had ardently cherished the hope of planting it. But the founding of Livingstonia was 1 The best books to be consulted on this subject, in addition to those of Dr. Stewart, are : Daybreak in Livingstonia, by the Rev. J. W. Jack, M.A., nnd Nyasa, a Journal of Adventures, by E. D. Young, R.N. 1» 124 STEWART OF LOVEDALE no part of his programme when he returned to Scotland. Two months after his arrival he wrote: ' When I came home, I had no more intention of proposing this scheme (Livingstonia) than of pro- posing a mission to the North Pole. It seemed, however, to be thrust upon me, almost to be waiting for me. I feel in one way more at rest and more quiet since I have taken up this burden.' On April 1 8, 1874, he took part in the burial of Livingstone's body in Westminster Abbey. ' At that funeral,' he wrote, * four of us met who, thirteen years before, met similarly and followed Livingstone in sympathetic and respectful silence to the grave of his wife under the large baobab tree on the Zambesi. These four were Sir John Kirk, the Rev. Horace Waller, Mr. E. D. Young, and myself.' Few events in the nineteenth century have so deeply moved the heart of our nation as the death and burial of Livingstone. To him we can apply the historian's words about Caesar slain — ' Never was he more alive, more powerful,' and also the words of the poet concerning the hero of Chevy Chase — * The Douglas dead, his name hath won the field.' The wonderful interest created by his Missionary Travels had died down in the interval, but it was rekindled by his death. The man and the hour had come. Stewart was a true Elisha on whom the inspiring mantle of Elijah had fallen, and he went straight from that grave to take up his master's work. He caught, and re- sponded to, ' the wink of opportunity ' : the tide was rising fast, and he must at once launch his long- considered and well-beloved scheme. Some were proposing to erect a monument to Livingstone in Westminster Abbey, but he felt that THE NOBLEST MEMORIAL 125 the right place for it was Nyasaland. Why should not Scotland at once raise such a memorial to her hero? We must give his own words. In Living- stonia : its Origin (pp. 45, 46), he says : ' On my return to Scotland from that funeral I consulted with some friends as to whether the time had not now arrived to again take up the idea of the pro- jected mission. The subject was carefully considered through an entire summer night, and only when daylight was beginning to appear was the matter finally concluded. But the resolve was made to reopen the question of the South African Mission, and give it the name of LIVINGSTONIA. This was in Shieldhall, an old country-house near Glasgow, then the residence of my brother-in-law, Mr. John Stephen. The mission would thus be a memorial of Livingstone, and the one of all others which I knew very well he would have himself preferred.' In the following May Stewart made his proposal to the General Assembly of his Church, It was after 10 P.M. when he began to speak, and the crowd had dwindled down. But he had among his hearers some who were able and willing to help. He threw aside his prepared speech and spoke with great effect. He closed with these memorable words : ' I would humbly suggest, as the truest memorial of Livingstone, the establishment by this Church, or several Churches together, of an institu- tion at once industrial and educational, to teach the truths of the Gospel and the arts of civilised life to the natives of the country, and which shall be placed in a carefully selected and commanding spot in Central Africa, where from its position and capabilities it might grow into a town, and after- wards into a city, and become a great centre of 126 STEWART OF LOVEDALE commerce, civilisation, and Christianity. And this I would call Livingstonia! "^ Describing this speech in a letter to Mrs. Stewart, he wrote : ' I said, I am not volunteering for this service. If some of my friends I now see were to hear me doing so, they would pull my coat-tails and say : " Remember the little woman at Lovedale." Ah, I did remember her, and the little ones playing about the door, or crawling over the floor. . . . Blessed are the bonds of flesh and blood ! But I would say this for the little woman or little lady at Lovedale, I never yet found her shrink from duty. ... I am not committed. But if by a few words I can raise a great result, I should be a coward if I did not say them. If it is not God's time and work, it will perish. But if it were to take place, it would lift Lovedale up to a position that has never yet been dreamt of, and would give it a new importance as a base of operations. Lovedale will always be our headquarters and our home. Nothing will be done for worldly fame or honour or name. Ambition of that sort in me is nearly dead. For the sake of Him who loved us and died for us, for His sake only and for the furtherance of His kingdom, would I say a word on this subject.' The name * Livingston ia' was then used for the first time in public. He pled that a combined mission should be begun at once on the same lines as Lovedale. The next day Mr. James Stevenson of Glasgow promised ;!^iooo for the new mission, and in a day or two he secured another ;^iooo from ' This speech secured the valuable services of Dr. Laws. When he read the report of it in the newspapers, he said : ' There is the very thing I have been preparing for all my life.' When Stewart first met him, he said to himself, 'There is the man for us.' LAUNCHING THE SHIP 127 Dr. Young, the lifelong friend of Livingstone, who used to call him 'Sir Paraffin Young.' The desired sum of ;^ 1 0,000 was soon secured, and ere long it grew into ;^20,ooo. The first promoters of the mission were Mr. James Stevenson, Mr. J. Campbell White (afterwards Lord Overtoun), Mr. John Stephen, and the Rev. (now Dr.) Robert Howie, whose aid in collecting the money Stewart acknowledged in the warmest terms, describing him as ' probably the greatest and most successful raiser of money in Glasgow, if not in Scotland.' The Church had never had a mission like this before, and Stewart had to do nearly all the pre- liminary work single-handed. Faraday loved to show that water in crystallising excludes all foreign ingredients, however intimately they might be mixed with it. Out of acids, alkalis, or saline solutions, the crystal comes sweet and pure. The founder of Livingstonia had many trying ex- periences. But it is fitting that, in harmony with the gentle processes of nature, they should be ex- cluded from his biography, so that the purified product alone may remain to refresh and inspire. When I was with Stewart at Lovedale, shortly before his death, he vividly recalled an incident of these days which had given him much pleasure. One day he had met me in the street. 'Oh,' he said, ' I was coming to see you. We'll soon get the money for Livingstonia, if we could tell our friends that we had got the right man.' ' If you will come and conduct a service for me,' I said, 'you'll get the right man at the close.' He came, and was intro- duced to Dr. William Black. ' I remember it all,' he said, ' as if it had been yesterday. I asked him if he were willing to go to Livingstonia. He walked 128 STEWART OF LOVEDALE up and down the vestry with his eyes fixed on the carpet. Then he came in front of me, drew himself up and said, " Yes, with the help of God, I will." ' Dr. Black was one of those who were ' baptized for the dead.' In the early Church the phrase was understood to mean one who by baptism or a solemn dedication took the place of another who had died. The death of Dr. Livingstone created in Dr. Black a desire to serve Christ in Central Africa. He was chosen as the first medical missionary for Livingstonia, though Dr. Laws was the first to reach the field. He was a man of great promise, but he died seven months after his arrival. His is the first European grave on the shores of Lake Nyasa. It may remind us of the bones of Joseph which were carried out of the land of Egypt and buried at Sychar, as a token of his faith that the land would be given to his seed. The tombs of missionaries are the stepping-stones over which the Gospel has made progress in Africa, and also the title-deeds of the Church. Of Dr. Black, Stewart said : ' He was a man in every way admirably qualified, by his varied previous training, habits, and inclinations, for any mission field.' In May 1875, exactly a year after the inception of Livingstonia, the first party started for Nyasa- land. That year had been one of the busiest of Stewart's life. In a letter to Mrs. Stewart, he says : ' Livingstonia is the heaviest piece of business I have undertaken in my life. The responsibility is very great from the amount of money, life, and credit that is at stake. When we look back at this, we can only say, " What hath God wrought." Of course it has taken an immense amount of toil and anxiety, and I think I can truly say it is two years' work AFRICA SHALL LIVE 129 condensed into one. . . . Again and again the long- ing comes over me to get back to Africa. We at least have nothing to say against Africa ; it has not treated us badly. Africa and its children are now our life-work. And I am not sorry that God's Providence has led us there. Nor, I am sure, are you. We have nailed the flag of Africa to our mast, and there it must remain till God Himself take it down.' Urgent affairs in Lovedale and the building of Blythswood hindered Stewart from conducting the party. But he selected all the men, made all the arrangements for their journey, drew up the regula- tions for their guidance, and held himself financially responsible for the venture. Ere long he joined them with a large staff of helpers. The Admiralty lent the services of Mr. E. D. Young, R.N., for two years, to lead the expedition. With Mr. Young were Dr. Laws, four artisan missionaries, and Mr. Henry Henderson, a representative of the Church of Scot- land. They took with them the Ilala (in sections), a small steamer which got its name from the place where Livingstone died. Nomen, Omen. That name was a happy reminder that the great friend of Africa still lived in the hearts of many whose resolve was, ' Livingstone shall not die : Africa shall live! Under Mr. Young's skilful leadership, the party reached the lower end of the Murchison Rapids. Many delightful surprises awaited them. The natives treated each man as if he were another Livingstone. Their name for the British was, 'that tribe that loves the black man.' Their joy was so great that they could hardly contain themselves. These Mako- lolo had been Livingstone's men, and the reappear- I I30 STEWART OF LOVEDALE ance of the British flag drew forth an enthusiasm beyond description. When the steamer was fairly into their territory, they crowded to the river-bank in thousands, clapping their hands and shouting at the return of their ' fathers, the English.' When Mr. Young told them the purpose of their mission, they were delighted, and promised their help to the utmost. They were filled with sorrow when they learnt that Livingstone was dead. Had all our fellow-countrymen in Africa been of the same spiritual kith and kin as David Livingstone, what might Africa have been to-day ! The Ilala was taken to pieces, and about a thou- sand natives carried it in five days some sixty miles over a serpentine, roadless mountain track, through long grass and thorny thickets, under a blazing tropical sun. This marvellous feat was achieved without a desertion or a dispute, or the loss of a single bolt or screw. The loads weighed about fifty pounds each, and contained seven hundred pieces of the Ilala. Among blacks as among whites, satisfying service is secured only by hearty goodwill between employers and employed. ' We had everything delivered up to us,' Mr. Young says, * unmolested, untampered with, and unhurt, and every man merry and contented with his well-earned wages of six yards of calico.* The Ilala was bolted together on the river-bank, and, after steaming a hundred miles up the Shir^, on October 12, 1875, it safely entered Lake Nyasa, four hundred and fifty miles from the sea. It was the first steamer ever launched on an African lake. Its passengers had entered No-Man's- Land, taking their lives in their hands. An un- broken stretch of heathenism, about the size of THE BIRTH-HOUR OF A NEW ERA 131 Europe, then lay between them and the nearest mission. The natives were paralysed with wonder as the 'big iron canoe,' 'the fireship' without oars or sails, a living, palpitating monster, snorted past their villages, guided by mysterious men from beyond the seas, with white skins and straight hair. Many on board had prophesied that Mr. Young was taking out a number of young fellows to leave their bones on the Zambesi, and that the Ilala would never reach Nyasa. But the greatly daring deed had been done without a single mishap. The world owes much to its daring men who know how to dare wisely. The entrance of this little steamer into the sea- like lake was the birth-hour of the greatest era in the history of Central Africa. Five slave dhows were then on the lake, and one of them lowered its flag to the British flag flying at the masthead of the mission steamer. The bell of the Ilala rang out the death-knell of African slavery. The sight and the sound filled the Arab slavers with consternation, for they knew that their slaving days would soon be ended. ' God speed you,' Mr. Young said reverently as they entered the lake. 'Amen,' his mates re- sponded. The steam was shut off, the engines ceased to throb, and a hushed silence fell upon the little party. They assembled on deck and engaged in divine worship. With awed and rejoicing hearts they sang : 'All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, Come ye before him and rejoice,' N 132 STEWART OF LOVED ALE Dr. Laws thus describes the feelings of his company : * Looking to the future with its vast possibih'ties, they were filled with a sense of awe, for the Nyasa horizon towards its unknown north end was but a symbol of the work before them.' The rising sun was then gilding with his radiance the western mountains, and they hailed this as an emblem of the speedy rising of the Sun of Righteousness upon that long-benighted region, with healing in his wings. CHAPTER XIV AT LIVINGSTONIA, 1 876- 1 877 Two Native Missionaries — At Quilimane — On the Shire — On Lake Nyasa — A Fhtting — At Blantyre — The First Lord's Supper in Nyasaland. 'If we contend, let us contend like the olive and the vine, which shall produce most fruit. ' — A Saying of the Rabbis. ' Every great work must be born of enthusiasm and carried out with common-sense and perseverance.' ' Use temporary failure as a stepping-stone to success.' — Dr. Stewart's Journal. In the summer of 1876, Stewart started for Living- stonia with a party of seventeen Europeans and four natives. Major Malan, Stewart's devoted friend and helper, had written to him, ' Think much over native agency at Nyasa. I hope you will take some labourers there — to remain. Black men will listen to black men who come with white men, and to white men who come with black.' As many of the pupils at Lovedale speak the same language as the Ngoni on Lake Nyasa, Stewart had appealed to the senior students for volunteers. Of the fourteen who responded, four were accepted One of them was William Koyi, an ex-bullock driver, who made a wonderful impression upon both blacks and whites. He said that he could go only as a hewer of wood and drawer of water, that he had only half a talent which he wished to use for Christ. 133 134 STEWART OF LOVEDALE ' He was the human agent largely used by God,' Stewart said, *in opening the way for the Gospel among the Ngoni — a tribe as cruel, as fond of blood- shed and raiding as any in Africa.' Near the end of his life, Stewart declared with deep feeling that William Koyi was one of the best men he had ever known. Large and enthusiastic meetings were held in honour of the missionaries at Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Stewart records that one of the speakers struck the right key-note by saying that ' civilisation without Christianity was a dry stick to plant in Africa or elsewhere.' A friend then gave him a donation of ;;^ 2000 for the mission. Stewart writes: ' We were going as civilisers as well as preachers, and we took Scotch cart-wheels and axles, American trucks, wheel-barrows, window-frames, and many other additional tools and implements which a sailor would describe under the one word gear. ... A year later. Captain Elton, H.M.'s Consul at Mozam- bique, visited Livingstonia. As we walked up from the beach together, I saw him looking steadily down at some mark on the road which led from the beach to the station. I asked him what he was looking at. He said, " Are these wheel-marks? If they are, it is more than we have at Mozambique even after two centuries." This was true, for no wheeled vehicle of any kind was to be found there then.' One of Stewart's children was born shortly before he started. He inserted ' Nyasa ' in her name, ' because,' he said, ' I was not sure that I would see her again.' The party safely reached Quilimane on August 8, 1876. Stewart, with deep emotion and fervent gratitude to God, visited the room in which he had AGAIN ON THE ZAMBESI 135 spent six weeks thirteen years before, as a fever- stricken stranger. ' Then,' he wrote,' I had come down all alone in a canoe after a journey of four hundred miles on the Zambesi. I was very sick, very poor, very depressed. Things looked very black that night. To-day we have a strong party with a good steamer, and a force of twenty-three men. We have made a good start, and soon will come the struggle for the life of the enterprise. So strange is the contrast between the present and the past, that I can hardly think that I am the same man who was here in 1863. Patient waiters are sometimes rewarded, you see. . . . Does John remember when the word Livingstonia was first uttered? He was sitting on one side of the fire and I on the other.' They had a fleet of seventy canoes, and * the num- ber of natives employed altogether was nearly one thousand men, six hundred of these being required at the Murchison Cataracts.' The efforts of the rowers drew forth his hearty admiration. He writes : ' It was a pleasant sight to see all these boats flying along under a steady breeze on the broad African river. This also relieved the wearied rowers. Those in canoes had still the same daily hard toil of punt- ing and paddling against a swift current from dawn till dusk. . . . We speak of their indolence and laziness, but it would be more sensible to speak of their endurance, their willing loyalty to the white man, and their contentment with but the smallest share of this world's good things, either to eat or to drink or to wear. All three for him are of the roughest and poorest, the scantiest and most pre- carious, and yet there is a perfectly wonderful, light- hearted cheerfulness when the day is done.' He wakes in the night, and hears one of his Love- 136 STEWART OF LOVEDALE dale boys on watch, ' pacing his round with his rifle on his shoulder, singing low and sweetly, and apparently much to his heart's content, one of Sankey's hymns, "Jesus loves me, even me." He did not know that I was stirring.' This singing watchman was Shadrack Ngunane, one of the Love- dale volunteers, whom Stewart, by an act of grace, had allowed to remain in Lovedale after a grave offence. ' He has been as busy and useful,' Stewart adds, ' as a white man could have been, always well, always cheerful, always ready for everything. The picture of this once wild Kafir, formerly rather troublesome, now cheerfully keeping his midnight watch in this fashion and on such a venturesome journey, is one I shall not forget. It made me hope for the day when out of the regions we are now in there will be many who will prove themselves as worthy of the labour bestowed on them as this lad has done, and help to convey the Gospel still farther on. . . . Day or night I never found my Kafir friend sleeping when he ought to be waking, or else- where than at the post of duty. There are many such Kafirs, if all are not. There are also such men to be found in other African tribes as well — men you can trust — if there are also among them, as amongst all other sorts and conditions of men, those whom you cannot trust. Such at least has been my experience of thirty years amongst Africans. Let us not grudge to state what is true about a race whose capacity and trustworthiness so many doubt, and often speak of with needless contempt.' Many were the anxieties of the leader. It seemed to a native much easier to run off into the forest with a bale of cotton, than to work a whole month for it under the broiling sun. One evening seventy EXPLORING LAKE NYASA 137 men deserted in the darkness, taking with them a large quantity of calico. They were brought back with difficulty. ' We have come successfully through it all,' Stewart wrote, ' by God's care and help.' Mr. Young met the party at the Murchison Catar- acts, and on October 21st the Ilala sailed into the bay. ' She entered the lake at six in the morning,' Stewart wrote, ' and according to our custom we had worship, the engines having stopped for a few minutes. At Mr. Young's request, we sang " From Greenland's icy mountains," all joining in with a fervour which was no doubt helped by the peculiar associations of the place and hour.' Stewart took charge at Livingstonia for fifteen months. He and Dr. Laws made the second circum- navigation, but the first exploration, of the stormy lake, and were the first white men to set foot on its northern shores. They ran the Ilala, each three months at a time, 'steering, stoking, and repairing the steamer themselves.' Their chief difficulty was to secure enough of firewood. This work on the steamer caused not a little anxiety to the two landsmen, but it had to be done.^ They found that the lake is three hundred and fifty miles long, and that its breadth varies from sixteen to fifty miles. The men were the most uncivilised they had seen anywhere in Africa. The most of ^ Consul Elton spent some time with the Livingstonia missionaries, and he and his party were conveyed in the Ilala to the north end of the Lake Nyasa. In his In Eastern and Central Africa he warmly praises the work of the mission, and he adds (page 307): 'Dr. Stewart looks worn and anxious. He has a great deal of responsibility about the steamer, of which he — as well as Dr. Laws — should be relieved. It is not legitimate work, and it prevents him from concentrating his attention and care upon subjects of higher importance.' Again he says, ' Dr. Stewart is really ill.' 138 STEWART OF LOVED ALE them were entirely nude, or * go-nakeds,' to borrow the African phrase. Their only covering was a coat of red ochre and paint, which, as in our houses, served as a protection against the sun and the rain. His Journal records careful observations about all the objects he saw. But there are many blank leaves with only the date. Each of these repre- sented a fever-day. The mission station was then at Cape Maclear, at the southern end of the lake, a very beautiful spot, but unhealthy, and not well watered. After pro- longed and very anxious examination of many sites, Stewart recommended that the mission should be removed to Bandawe, half-way up the western side of the lake. The bay near Livingstonia he called Florence Bay, after one of his daughters. It is so named on the maps : it was the only place in Africa to which he gave a name. At Florence Bay he had so severe an attack of fever that he quietly gave instructions about his papers. In one of his letters he placed several mosquitoes, and wrote underneath: ' Our worst tormentors. We are more afraid of them than of elephants.' 'When I walked down the west side of Lake Nyasa in quest of a site for the mission,' he wrote, ' I saw nothing in the quiet lagoons and shores of that great inland sea but elephants in abundance, and buffaloes, one startled lioness, and hippopotami without number. There were the native people of course. The most of them were living in triple stockaded villages for fear of the dreaded Ngoni. There was not a single native Christian, nor a church or school-book or Bible, or printed page, nor a single native who could tell the first letter of the alphabet' One day, while waiting by the shore till a younger THE AFRICAN LAKES CORPORATION 139 missionary secured a dinner for them both, the idea flashed into his mind : ' How much easier it would be for all African workers, if stores were opened near to or at their principal mission stations.' This was the real origin of the ' African Lakes Corpora- tion, Ltd.' A letter was forthwith drafted, indicating the advantages to be gained by opening up the country to wholesome trade and commerce. This letter was sent to the convener of the Livingstonia Mission Committee, and the result was the formation of the Company, All the original shareholders were members of the Livingstonia Committee, but they formed an independent Mercantile Company, which has had great success, and has rendered immense services to missions and the country. It has also had an influential share in the abolition of the slave-trade. The shareholders were content ' to take their dividends out in philanthropy,' but they now earn a dividend of ten per cent.^ * Mr. Fred. L. M. Moir, the Secretary of the Company, writes : ' At a very early stage it was found that, unless the time of the missionaries was to be unduly taken up in attending to absolutely necessary commercial affairs, a separate organisation was not only desirable but essential. In the interests of the natives themselves, and as discouraging the slave-trade, it was also obviously expedient to foster legitimate commerce and to establish steam communication with the coast. In the summer of 1S78, as a result of representations made by Dr. James Stewart and others, a Company — the Livingstonia Central Africa Company, Limited (now known as the African Lakes Corporation, Limited) — was formed by gentlemen in Glasgow and Edinburgh. A steamer to ply on the Zambesi and Shire rivers was despatched along with consignments of barter goods and, later on, the s.s. Ilala, brought out to Lake Nyasa by the first Livingstonia party, was taken over by the Company. Trading and transport stations were opened at Quilimane on the coast, on the Zambesi and Shire rivers, at Blantyre, and on Lake Nyasa, the Company gradually enlarging the scope of their operations as opportunities presented themselves. Fiom small beginnings the Company giev^ until now they have I40 STEWART OF LOVED ALE Stewart spent three months at Blantyre ^ Mission, whose existence was then imperilled. He was accompanied by his cousin, James Stewart, C.E., F.R.G.S., who directed the reconstruction of the mission and the making of the roads. These services were warmly acknowledged by the Estab- lished Church. ' In 1877 Dr. Laws of the Living- stonia Mission and myself,' he wrote, 'went to assist the Blantyre men to found their station. When we marched into what is now Blantyre, it consisted of five habitable huts, and three old ones which were not habitable. As to church or school, Bible or books, no such things existed. They had never numerous stations in Nyasaland, Portuguese Zambesia, North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia, and, in addition to other craft, eight steamers on the Zambesi and Shire rivers, two on Lake Nyasa, one on Lake Tanganyika and one on Lake Mweru. The Company act as agents for various Missionary Societies, and carry on an extensive trading, transport, and banking business, besides interesting them- selves in planting operations, etc. ' The original Company suffered severely at the hands of coast Arabs who, resenting attempts to introduce legitimate trade, made a determined effort to clear the white men out of the country so as to remove any obstacle to the continuance of slave-raiding operations. Fighting ensued, but eventually, after a large sum of money had been expended by the Company, the Arab slave-raiders were suppressed, and the country came under the direct control of the British Govern- ment, the Company handing over their treaty rights. ' With the moral and intellectual advancement of the natives of Central Africa, there has also been a steady development of the resources of the country, and during the comparatively short period since the formation of the Company, many changes for the better have taken place, and the conditions of life have vastly improved. Natives, who in other days would have contented themselves with lolling about in their villages, are now employed as storekeepers, carpenters, printers, telegraphists, typists, etc. In great measure the advance indicated is due to the devotion and energy displayed by the mission- aries of our Scottish Churches.' ^ Situated in the Shire hills, and so named after Livingstone's birthplace. THE CHIEF END OF LIVINGSTONIA 141 been heard of.' Now, there is a famous and well- filled church, built of brick and by natives. Blantyre has now a municipality, a weekly newspaper — The British Central African Gazette — and some monthly sheets of a missionary kind. There are four or five out-stations, at distances of thirty to forty miles, at each of which there is a church and school and real missionary work going on. The railway now reaches Blantyre. In the midst of all these preliminaries Stewart asks: 'Are we not in danger of forgetting our real purpose in this land? All this work, pleasant to see, and beneficial as it will be in its results, is material only. It is of the earth earthy. It begins and ends with time. A certain text kept constantly recurring to my mind as I walked about the place, *' One thing is needful." ' The Lord's Supper was celebrated on Lake Nyasa for the first time on November 26, 1877. As in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, twelve gathered around the Table with the Master. They have now about four thousand native communicants, and about five thousand candidates for communion. In the end of 1877 Stewart handed over the mission to Dr. Laws, and returned to Loved ale. He had spent nearly five of the best years of his life in the establishment of Livingstonia. CHAPTER XV LIVINGSTONIA, YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY After Thirty-three Years — Lord Overtoun — Dr. William Black — The Heart of Livingstone — The Stevenson Road — The Sweet First Fruits — Industrialism — The Zona of Nyasa- land — Report by Dr. Laws and Rev. J, Fairley Daly. • The mission of Blantyre in its earliest days got a few coffee plants sent out. Two only survived the voyage and the inland journey. From these have come the now numerous coffee plantations of the Shir6 and Manganga hills.' — Dr. Stewart. (These words represent in a symbol the history of the Livingstonia and Blantyre missions.) 'The story of Livingstonia reads like a fairy tale.' — A Glasgow Merchant. ' Greatly do I wish the Free Church to come forward. The men they would send would adapt themselves to the work and stick to it. I would recommend the Free Church to commence operations on the healthy heights near Lake Nyasa.' — Livingstone in 1874. You, sympathetic reader, will want to know what harvest has been reaped from the good seed cast into this seemingly unpromising soil. It will be best to tell you at once. It is fitting to do so here as Stewart wished to live in, for, and by his mission- work. It is now thirty-three years since the natives gazed upon the superhuman prodigy of the Ilala^ and fled in terror with their cattle into the tall grass. After 1877 Stewart had no direct connection with th2 mission. Since then it has been under the very 14S A GREAT MARVEL 143 wise and successful leadership of Robert Laws, D.D., M.D./ the only survivor in Africa of those who sang the 1 00th Psalm as the Ilala entered the lake. All along he has been supported by remarkably gifted and devoted helpers in every department of the work. The mission was planned on the model of Love- dale, and the change it has wrought in a generation is one of the very greatest surprises and marvels recorded in history.^ These thirty years have wit- nessed improvements which are usually the slow growth of centuries. The war-dresses of the wild Angoni have long ago rotted on the village trees, or been sold as curios to travellers. These bloody men are now, as messengers of the Prince of Peace, evangelising the villages they used to raid. The dreaded foragers are to-day foraging only for the great Captain. Livingstonia is now a rudimentary city and a station on the Cape-to-Cairo line of Telegraph. The Blantyre Telegraph alone brings in a revenue of ;!^200 a month, and the annual value of the export of coffee from it is over ^60,000. A recent traveller says that Livingstonia looks like a large industrial centre at home,^ and that at some services he found hundreds outside the church as ^ Sir Harry H. Johnston has proclaimed Dr. Laws 'the greatest man in Nyasaland.' ^ The first work of the founders was to dispossess the lions, leopards, and big game which were then the sole possessors of that district. The site chosen was on a lofty plateau, and about five miles from the Lake. ' Dr. Stewart expressed his belief that 'it would develop into a town, and by and by into a city, and that there would yet be a Christian Africa.' Forty years ago he predicted that ' Central Africa would some day have large cities and well-cultivated valleys, that steamers would traverse its rivers and lakes, and that native common- wealths would be established.' 144 STEWART OF LOVEDALE there was no room for them within. The disciples of the mission observe the Christian Sabbath as a May of the heart' Livingstonia is now regarded as a health-resort for Europeans. It has also a splendid water-supply and an electric installation, each of which cost ;^4000, and both of which were the gift of the late Lord Overtoun, whose removal from us has brought sorrow to myriads of Africa's dusky sons and daughters. They knew him well and loved him as the great Christian chief in the far-off white man's land, who, from the love he bore them, gave them water and light and healing, and many other blessed "things.^ His name was, and will continue, a house- hold word among them, for their ' Lovedale,' their great Institution, where they are taught the white man's wisdom and arts, is called Overtoun. Lord Overtoun's gifts to this mission were not less than ;£^50,ooo, and the man was behind, and in, all his gifts. He had also in a very high degree the in- stinct of missionary affection, and all the missionaries found in him a genial personal friend. An electrical engineer is on the mission staff. The station is now lighted, and the machinery in the large workshops is driven, by electricity ; motors are used for flour-mills ; and the natives are taught many of the arts and crafts of civilised life. Among the fourteen hundred students, ' there is no pandering to African pride or indolence. Every one has to take his turn at manual labour. On Sabbaths the scholars scatter among neighbouring villages to preach.' ^ ^ He paid the salary of three fully qualified physicians. * ' Livingstonia Mission was mentioned in the British Com- missioner's Report as "first as regards the value of its contributions MODERN MIRACLES 145 Plans have been prepared for an up-to-date hospital. ' All these grand practical results of the labours of the missionaries/ as a recent traveller describes them, ' are found in a land where twenty years ago there was not a single native industrial mechanic. The native who, twenty years ago, could not be per- suaded tc work more than four days at a stretch, now submits himself to a five years' apprenticeship, and becomes a fairly good workman.' Men and lads are coming in crowds, some of them travelling on foot for six weeks, to be taught trades. The African is now appreciating the fact that there is industrial work for him to do, that he is needed for the work, and able to do it. The missionaries had lately to refuse over one hundred and twenty who wished to be trained as carpenters. We are told that in Ngoni- land education is to-day as much prized as in Great Britain. The Ngoni lived as wolves among sheep till they were tamed by the messengers of Jesus Christ. ' Give me a Gospel for an assegai,' one of them said to the missionary, ' as the love of war has been taken out of my heart.' In October 1900 was celebrated the semi-jubilee of the arrival of the Ilala. Almost in the very region where Livingstone had been lost to the world for years, they were able to send by telegraph in less to our knowledge of African languages." Its members have been obliged to master eight languages or tongues, and to work with five others. Two and a half millions of people were able to read the Nyanja Testament as soon as they could read at all. Everything visible of civilisation or Christianity in Nyasaland has been introduced within thirty years.' — Parson's Ckrisius Liberator, p. 231. Sir H. H. Johnston says of Eandawe, ' the work done here is really remarkable. ... It is one of the most creditable and agreeable results of British missionary enterprise which ever gladdened the eyes of a traveller weary with the monotonous savagery of African wilds.' K 146 STEWART OF LOVEDALE than three hours, and by the hands of native tele- graphists, a message of greeting to Glasgow, and to receive felicitations from Edinburgh.^ The little band of engineers who in 1900 laid the British South African Company's telegraph line up the west coast of Lake Nyasa, had not a single armed man among them. A specific instance may help to impress these facts upon the memory and imagination of the reader. In 1875 a meeting was held to bid God-speed to Dr. William Black and three missionary artisans who were about to start for Livingstonia. One of them said something like this : ' I am to be the blacksmith of Livingstonia. I am to teach them ordinary blacksmith work, but also, by God's grace, to teach them the blacksmith work they need most, and that is to beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks.' This story was told at a missionary meeting in 1897. On leaving the meeting I met one of the Livingstonia missionaries, then home on furlough. 'You were referring to my friend, Robert Ross?' he said. 'Yes,' I replied. ' Well,' he continued, 'his hope has been fulfilled to the very letter. On my way home, I saw a field of wheat at Mwenzo, which belonged to the Mission. The Ngoni were reaping it with their spears. Not one of their assegais is now used for war. They have beat the iron of some of them into hoes, which are the native plough- shares. With other spears they cut their grain and prune their trees. These are their pruning-hooks. I took a snapshot of the Ngoni reapers, and I will send you a copy of it.' This change took place in twenty-one years. * See David Livingstone, in the Famous Scots Series, p. 147. A NOBLE MONUMENT TO LIVINGSTONE 147 Lord Salisbury had good reason for describing these and the neighbouring missions as 'splendid monuments of British energy and enthusiasm on Lake Nyasa.' A glance at the map will show how the mission stations have spread into the hinterland. The last added to the number was Chitambo, where the heart of Livingstone is buried. It is two hundred and fifty miles west of Lake Nyasa, and one of the missionaries there is a nephew of Livingstone, and a grandson of Robert Moffat. A stone monument has been erected recently on the spot. A still nobler monument is the work around. On the monument are the words, ' He died here.' Underneath might be written, ' And he still lives here.' The people there had never even heard of God or Christ. When the children were first enrolled for the school, the mothers were afraid that they would be eaten by the missionaries ! * The converts,' Dr. Laws reports, 'have liberality and a missionary conscience. All the adult members are expected to take part in the extension of the Church of Christ, as well as in its support' The Rev. Donald Fraser writes : ' Last year four to seven thousand souls gathered day by day for a week to hear the truths of the Kingdom. When we go tour- ing, we are often overwhelmed with presents of food. And when we ask for free labour to build a church or school, hundreds upon hundreds give their ser- vices without expectation of payment.' Eight languages have already been reduced to writing by the staff in Livingstonia. There is there an educational department with a Normal School and a Theological Course. ' Did Livingstone dream that within so short a period after his death there 148 STEWART OF LOVED ALE would be a Christian reading public on the shores of Lake Nyasa, subscribing to a native Christian periodical with such contents as a " Commentary on the Romans" and the " Imitation of Christ"?' The rapid growth of the Mission is due, under God, to the zeal, ability, and sanctified common- sense of the missionaries. No part of the work has been arrested by the lack of suitable volunteers. Usually more have offered than could be accepted, and not a few of them have had the highest quali- fications in their own departments. But it would not be easy to exaggerate the services given by the Livingstonia Mission Committee. From its origin, many of its members have been leading Glasgow merchants, who have enriched the Mission not only by their princely liberality, but also by their skill and personal influence. The map of Central Africa preserves the names of many supporters of the Mission. The road between Lake Nyasa and Tanganyika is called * The Stevenson Road,' after Mr. James Stevenson, one of the founders of Living- stonia, who, in addition to other princely donations to the Mission, spent ;i^4000 on this road. Mr. James White of Overtoun was Chairman of the Committee from 1874 to 1884, and his son, the late Lord Overtoun, was Chairman from 1884 to 1908. During thirty years all the meetings of the Com- mittee were held in the office of the Chairman, and to all the details of the Mission father and son and several other members of the Committee have given as earnest attention as our most energetic merchants usually devote to their business. Stewart rejoiced greatly that Livingstonia did so much to unite the Churches. From the first the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the United Presby- THE UNION OF THE CHURCHES 149 terian Church, and the Free Church of Scotland — all now united in the United Free Church — had a share in the Mission. The Reformed Dutch Church of Cape Colony has been working for twenty years in alliance with these Churches. The Blantyre Mission of the Church of Scotland and the Living- stonia Mission will probably soon be united in one native African Church. The Rev. J. Fairley Daly, B.D,, Honorary Secretary of the Livingstonia Committee, has supplied the following statement about the present position of the Mission : ' The first ten years were largely years of exploration and pioneering, during which educa- tional and industrial work were in their infancy. By 1885 the Mission was firmly established on the west side of Lake Nyasa, with Bandawe as its central station. But there were only nine baptisms during the first nine years. 'The second period of ten years (1885-1895) were years of upbuilding and expansion. Houses, schools, churches, and stores had to be erected, and most of the brickmaking, brick-building, and carpentry work connected with these was done by natives trained by the European artisans of the Mission. Passing years wrought many changes. Out-stations and Mission buildings multiplied. The foremost place was always given to the preaching of God's word, and the church roll rose to nearly three hun- dred. At the close of the decade nearly twelve thousand pupils were in daily attendance at the schools. 'The third decade (1895-1905) saw the Mission not only spreading out its branches, but pushing down its roots more deeply into the soil. As schools multiplied, better preparation for the teachers be- 15© STEWART OF LOVEDALE came a necessity, and this led to the estabh'shment of the Overtoun Institution at what is now the central station of Livingstonia. From places as distant as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru, from Khama's town and Natal, selected pupils are being sent to the Overtoun Institution for higher training. ' The work done has a literary and industrial side, and is for both males and females. Up to 1907 about seven hundred pupils have been enrolled as boarders on the literary side, and over three hun- dred have been received as apprentices on the industrial side, of whom between sixty and seventy have become journeymen. Four students have com- pleted the Theological Course, and two the Medical Course. After passing through the Elementary and Middle Schools, five courses are open to the pupils on the literary side — Normal, Commercial, Arts, Medical, and Theological. On the industrial side there are five departments — Agriculture, Building, Carpentry, Engineering and Blacksmithing, Printing and Bookbinding. The Institution is a centre of evangelisation. Over seventeen tribes are repre- sented. On Sundays, in addition to varied services, the villages for ten or twelve miles round are visited and the Gospel of God's saving grace proclaimed. Livingstonia is the lona of Nyasaland. ' In thirty years the Mission has spread over a district west of Lake Nyasa two hundred miles from north to south, and three hundred miles from east to west. There are now eight large central stations, the last established being at Chitambo, where David Livingstone died. The progress made may be best illustrated in tabular form : — i87S- 1907. 4 45 None 1000 None 480 I 8 None 500 None 36,419 None 3927 WORKS OF HEALING 151 Agents and Agencies European Missionaries, Native Teachers, Schools, . Stations, . Out-stations, . Scholars, . Communicants, Catechumens (Candidates for Com- munion), None 5219 The future is full of hope, for the fields are white to harvest. Throughout Nyasaland there is a move- ment tovv^ards God, which promises great things for the native church. 'Nine medical missionaries and three nurses are making widely felt the kindly influence of their healing art, and winning the trust and confidence of the people. In 1906 they treated over thirty-six thousand cases. At all the central stations are small local hospitals, and at Livingstonia a beginning has been made with the erection of a larger hospital, called the David Gordon Memorial Hospital, destined to become a training-school in medicine and nursing for Africa's sons and daughters.' We add an extract from a letter of date October 22, 1906. It was sent by Sir Alfred Sharpe, Gover- nor of Nyasaland, to the Secretary of State, after a second visit to Livingstonia. He writes: ' It is a most interesting place. The object of the Institu- tion is the industrial education of the natives, the very best form of mission-work, and I cannot too highly praise the undertaking which is being carried on. It is good, sensible work, which is useful to the country now, and will be still more so in the years to come. The whole place is worked on business principles, not on sentimental lines. I have not seen 152 STEWART OF LOVED ALE the Lovedale Institution in South Africa, which is larger than the Overtoun Institution, but, with that exception, I do not think there is any missionary institution in Central Africa of so useful and entirely satisfactory a description as that carried on by Dr. Laws. On the ist of January of the present year he had a total number of one hundred and twenty- three apprentices.' In this way the Livingstonia Mission, first suggested by Stewart, is a growing evangelistic, educational, medical, and industrial influence in Central Africa. The boys of its Overtoun Institu- tion may now be met far from Lake Nyasa, bearing good testimony to Christ by word and action. Mr. Moffat, travelling to his new station by the Cape-to- Cairo Railway, wrote that a feature of his journey was the number of Livingstonia boys whom he met at various places, such as Bulawayo, Salisbury, Broken Hill, and elsewhere, and all doing well. Quite a number were church members, one had been ordained an elder, and some were holding Sunday services where they resided. Of these many will doubtless say in future years — as an old chief said to Dr. Laws regarding some of his young teachers — ' God bless the day these lads came to our village.' Thus was Livingstone's prediction fulfilled : ' Al- though I shall not live to see it, yet there will certainly come a day when the Gospel will be planted in this blessed land.' Dr. Laws reports that the native congregation at Bandawe has 1348 communicants, of whom 1022 sat down together at the Lord's Table, 20 elders, 26 deacons, 768 catechumens, 40 preaching stations, 7039 at Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, 9252 on BLESSINGS THAT ARE BURDENS 153 roll of week-day schools, with an average attend- ance of 4070. Last year they gave £1^7 for religious objects, and ;^73 for school fees. The Mission has covered with hundreds of schools an area equal to that of Scotland. At Overtoun they have 7 theological, 2 medical, and 4 arts students. There are 3 native licentiates, one of whom is about to be ordained. Four boys lately v/alked two hundred miles to be taught, and some students come from Lake Tanganyika and Garenganze in the Congo State. Some of the churches are beautiful brick buildings of native workmanship. ' Our blessings have become our burdens,' Dr. Laws says, ' so great has been the growth of the Mission.' Every com- municant is expected to be a missionary. Over a hundred have already gone forth as certificated teachers and evangelists. They are creating a Christendom in the heart of darkest Africa. Dr. Laws has examined over nineteen hundred candi- dates for communion. The miracles of the early Church have been repeated, and they who were not a people are becoming the people of God. The Mission has founded a church and is moulding a nation. We need not be curious about Stewart's exact share in the great work of Livingstonia, in which there have been so many willing and successful helpers. The Rev. Horace Waller, the editor of Living- stone's last Journals, in 1894 wrote to his fellow- explorer, Stewart : ' I can humbly perceive what a factor your own life has been in the regeneration of Central Africa after 1864. It wanted some one to keep hold of the thread of former experience and aspirations. . . . Meanwhile it was left to your Scots Churches to answer to the voice which you raised 154 STEWART OF LOVEDALE among them. All honour to you all for it. You know that it has been one of the pleasures of my own life to watch your efforts as churches, and where I could, to help.' It has been said that the best cordial for drooping spirits is to study the history of the Church in the early ages. Probably few pages in it record any more inspiring miracles of missions than the story of Livingstonia. Three thousand years ago a Jew, possessed by a spirit greater than his own, rose above the extreme limitations of his age and race and gave forth this astounding prophecy : ' There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains, the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name shall endure for ever : His name shall be continued as long as the sun : and men shall be blessed in Him : all nations shall call Him blessed. And blessed be His glorious name for ever ; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory: Amen, and Amen. CHAPTER XVI THE ESSENTIAL ETHIOPIAN^ Bishop Colenso — How to 'think black' — The African Warrior — The Sluggard — African Religion — Nature's Gentleman — The Raw Kafir — Religious Instincts — African Loyalty. ' Men are apt to be impressed by the unknown.' — Galgacus, as reported by Tacitus. ' A man cannot live without charms.' — Bechuana Proverb. 'Do you know why man is the most suffering creature in the world? It is because he stands with one foot in the finite, and the other in the infinite, and is torn asunder, not by four horses, but by two worlds.' — Lamennais. 'The Zulus are a wonderful people. They defeat our generals (Isandhlwana\ they convert our Bishops (Colenso), and they add finis to the fortunes of a French Dynasty (the Prince Im^&naX).'— Disraeli. In the beginning of 1878 Stewart returned from Livingstonia to Lovedale. During the years 1878 to 1890 he was on what may be called the level tableland of his life. These years had not the ^ Light is shed on this subject by the lives of the great African missionaries, chiefly by those of Livingstone and Coillard. Three recent very valuable books introduce us to the modern Ethiopian — Dudley Kidd's The Essential Kafir ; Savage Childhood: A Study of Kafir Children (the first English book on this subject) ; and Kafir Socialism and the Dawn of Individualism : An Introduction to the Study of the Native Problem (newly published). (A. and C. Black.) The heading of this chapter has been suggested by the first of these. The adjective ' Essential' is here used, as Mr. Kidd uses it, to denote those qualities which are common to all the tribes in South Africa, and form what may be called their national Catholic religion. 166 156 STEWART OF LOVEDALE same romantic incidents as the pioneering days, for they were devoted chiefly to the consolidation and expansion of Lovedale. Confusion must overtake us if our record of this period attempts to keep equal step with the growing years. We must, therefore, for the present abandon the chronological order, and describe consecutively what was con- temporaneous. We shall thus devote a separate chapter to each of Stewart's many-sided activities ; for he was at this time a Missionary, an Education- alist, an Agriculturalist, a Captain of Industry, a Physician, a Preacher, an Author, and a Statesman who had some share in shaping the laws. All these efforts were intertwined, but we can untwist the strands, and then reunite them. It will help us to understand him in all his capacities, if we begin by examining the human material upon which he was always working. The subject has many attractions for all students of mankind and of comparative religion, and it will reveal the environment of the African missionary, and, to some extent, of all foreign missionaries. There are three attitudes toward the native : extravagant laudation, pagan scorn, and Christian reasonableness. The first is represented by Bishop Colenso, who petted and spoiled the Zulus. He regarded them as a glorious race, destined to guide, 'absorb and assimilate' the white man. Some at the other extreme would practically deny him the bare rights of manhood. Between these two stand all reasonable Christians, who accept him as a member of the human family and capable of eleva- tion. No one was more reasonable in this matter than Stewart was. Lovedale had pupils from some fifteen tribes THE SOUL OF THE ETHIOPIAN 157 south of the Zambesi. Nearly all were from the parent stock of the Bantus. The Makololo, the Banyai, and the Barotsi were originally Zulus. Hence Coillard's native Basuto evangelists could at once address Lewanika's people in their mother- tongue. The wild Ngoni around Lake Nyasa were also of the Zulu stock, and so they could understand William Koyi from Lovedale. All missionaries agree that it is very hard, some would say that it is impossible, thoroughly to explore the black mind, or to 'think black.' 'It is no disparagement to his insight into native character,' writes one of Stewart's friends, ' to say that the more he knew them, the more he recognised that inscrut- able something which has puzzled the most experi- enced missionaries.' Selous, the hunter, says that he failed to fathom the native mind. ' The character of the Zambesians,' writes Coillard, ' is like the cataracts of Musi Oa Tunya (the Victoria Falls). One cannot sound them, or yet even see the bottom.' It seems that the native can be many men at once : he can say one thing, think another, and do a third. The best informed often say regarding him : ' After all, one never knows.' Many place the Kafir next to the white man, though he is prone to believe that everything needs a lie. The Ethiopian is usually a great liar, and he dearly loves superlatives, finding in big words an apparent relief from the little things that make up his life. For centuries he has had to practise such habits of concealment as weak wild beasts use when encircled by powerful and cunning beasts of prey. Then he is polite, and lies from his desire to please the white man. ' They value politeness more than iS8 STEWART OF LOVED ALE truthfulness,' Dudley Kidd says. Stewart regarded the native as a diplomatist, who, like diplomatists all the world over, is full of suspicion, and, in self- defence, studies 'an economy of truth,' and will never commit himself till he has discovered the probable consequences. Hence in his dealings with his neighbours his intellect is often his accomplice rather than his guide. Some heathen practices clave at first to the early Christians who were deeply devoted to Christ, and so the Christian native needs to have his conscience trained, especially regarding his besetting sins of lying, ingratitude, and dis- honesty. It has been said that in their native state all the roots of their nature were exhausted in the pro- duction of one sterile orchid — the warrior without a conscience. In their creed war was the chief end for which man was made, as with Homer's heroes. *To go on plundering expeditions against other people,' an African replied, when asked for what purpose he had been made. Chaka, the Napoleon of South Africa, is said to have killed one million of people in his wars. Lo Bengula's title was * the Eater of his People,' and his capital, the last great stronghold of African heathenism, was called Bula- wayo, ' the place of slaughter.' Yet cruelty is not a distinction of the native except when specially pro- voked. Stewart said that, when a medical student in Edinburgh, he was more afraid of the white heathen there than he was in after years of the black heathen in Africa. I have heard him say that he found in Africa nothing so shameful as the wife-beating by drunkards at home. These earth-children are a very sensual race, but paganism is protected from complete disclosure by INCURABLE LAZINESS 159 the enormity of its vices : among them is the shame that cannot be explained or even named for shame. Kidd makes exceedingly painful statements about the atrocious immorality of their celebrations when boys and girls enter on manhood and womanhood. The fountains of their life are then poisoned, and the native girls are treated as chattels, not as persons. ' The imagination of the Kafir runs to seed after puberty. It would be safer to say that it runs to sex.' (Kidd.) Educationalists believe that this is the reason why the natives keep pace with the whites till about fifteen years of age, and then fall far behind them.^ Stewart denies that the Ethiopian is incurably lazy, and Dudley Kidd and Sir Harry Johnston agree with him. He is not lazy as a warrior, a hunter, a carrier, or a runner in the ricksha, the man-drawn carriage. Like people nearer home, he works only when he has a sufficient motive. He greatly enjoys warm and social laziness, but he is capable of great exertion and perseverance. Stewart highly appreciated their services as carriers. In an article in the Nineteenth Century for January of this year. Sir Harry H. Johnston says that, all things being equal, the negro is as willing to work for a salary as the Asiatic or the European. This has been proved, he says, on a large scale by the construction of the Congo Railway The negro's reputed laziness, he maintains, is due to the fact that for centuries he has been regarded 'as a fit subject to be cheated.' No doubt, like people in other lands, he wishes to secure the prizes of life without paying the price. The South African Native Affairs Commission 1 Mr. Bryce, in his Impressions of AJrica, says that our Government now forbids these evil rites, as well as the ' smelling out ' of witches. i6o STEWART OF LOVEDALE say : ' The theory that the South African natives are hopelessly indolent may be dismissed as being not in accordance with facts.' The chief difficulty with the genuine Ethiopian is to get him to think. He always turns up laughing, whatever his troubles may be. Life is treated by him as a joke. His ideals are few and low, and he is not sobered by the struggle for existence. An animal programme of life contents him, and his idea of personal responsibility is very faint. ' He is the greatest optimist of all the human types.' Like the rest of mankind, the Africans are a religious race, though they have neither temple, nor idol, nor stated worship, nor written creed. The universal heathen heart has still something of its fatherland in it : if you go deep enough, you will find the instincts of God and the life to come even among those who are at the swine troughs. Homer truly says, ' As young birds ope their mouths for food, so all men crave for the gods.' ' Religion is not a new invention,' says Max Miiller, * it is at least as old as the world we know. The earliest man was in possession of religion, or rather possessed by religion. There is no trace of the making of religion out of the rudest of materials. It grows wild and luxuriates, like wind-sown plants in the richest soil.' * As for the inscription of a deity in their hearts,' says Fuller, ' it need not be new written, but only new scoured in them.' Among the heathen, religion needs not to be created, but to be corrected. Their hearts, like ours, require a god. There are kindred rays in all men, and from the same source, and beclouded by the same errors. Tertullian taught that religion was as old as the world, and that the soul of man was naturally Christian. When rightly IDENTITY IN MORALS AND SPIRITUALS i6i understood, every religion is, in some degree, a pre- paration for the teaching of Christianity. Africa wishes to worship God, but does not know how, and gropes about like a blind man. Popular super- stitions are practically the same in all heathen races and have their origin in the same definite facts and experiences ; and many of them survive even in nominally Christian lands. As with the wise men from the East, and as with some who met Christ in the days of His flesh, superstition may pave the way for the true faith. These world-wide facts are a striking proof of the unity of our race, and especially of the essential identity of men in moral and spiritual things. Julius Caesar and Augustus believed in magic as thoroughly as the Africans of to-day. Child-life everywhere is essentially the same, though a white child sucks the thumb and a black the tore- finger. The life-blood in all men is red, and flows according to the same laws. The Ethiopian believes that his life at every point touches the supernatural. He lives continually in an atmosphere of spiritual things. His use of the poison cup and other ordeals is an appeal to a spiritual and final tribunal. Such a practice was common in England in King Alfred's day, and re- garded as a direct appeal to God. The African is hag-ridden by religious fears, many of which are shadows projected by his accusing conscience and by centuries of frightful oppression. * I believe in devils,' is the first article of his creed. Feeling help- less in the presence of the unseen, he grows old in seeking imaginary relief from imaginary evils, and in vain efforts to ' square ' the evil spirits with which he peoples the unseen world, and whose hearts, he believes, are full of vengeance and mischief The L i62 STEWART OF LOVEDALE amulets he wears are to protect him against their malignity. All his customs about witchcraft are based upon a belief in a world of spirits. In him we see religion gone mad, but it is religion still, and by far the mightiest force in his life. This bewildered religion proves that the African is a man. Some praise picturesque ' heathendom ' and tell us that the man of Africa is ' nature's gentleman,' happy in his raw state, and that he should be let alone. That is an old story, for Homer describes the ' Ethiops ' as an ' embrowned ' people, who dwell ' most remote ' from men, in a state of native virtue ; and some classical writers used to locate Paradise among the blameless Ethiopians whom the gods loved to visit. The ancient and the modern views are equally fables. This objection to Foreign Missions is also very old, for Julian said that Christian fishers take men out of the element in which they are free and happy. But what are the facts? The traveller could hardly find in any other land more woebegone faces than in South Africa, and years impirint more wrinkles on the heart than on the face. The native child, black but comely, and as chubby as a Cupid, looks like a statue of the boy Apollo painted black ; but when he passes middle life, he bears the most monstrous traces of care and fear. His face is like corrugated iron, and his ' wrinkles seem to obliterate the features and to be graven down to the very skull.' They all keenly feel the mysteries around life and death, and they are like the Greeks in Homer's day who attributed death to the arrows of Apollo or Artemis. The bow with the bowstring cut across is their touching symbol of death. They do not believe that any death comes from natural COMPARATIVE RELIGION 163 causes. ' Death inspires them with terror,' writes Decle in his Three Years hi Savage Africa. ' They have an unspeakable horror of a corpse. The boldest hunter when dying will call for his mother, though she has been dead for years. He knows no one else who would be minded to help him through the dark valley. It seems that the sacred writer must have known them when he wrote, " Through fear of death — all their life-time subject to bondage."' David Livingstone knew the native, if ever man did. More than any other man, he explored both the heart of Africa and of the African. His books are a rich mine of information, illustration, and suggestion regarding this attractive subject.^ We are sure that he sets forth there what were also the deepest convictions of Stewart. Both very generously recognised all that is good and hopeful in the native religion, as Paul did at Athens. ' Nothing,' Livingstone says, ' is more heartrend- ing than their death wails.' He speaks of their 'dread of the strange land beyond the mountains.' ' Great Father, give us rest and peace,' was their pathetic appeal to him. ' Do people die with you ? ' asked two intelligent young men. ' Have you no charm against death ? Where do people go after death?' Livingstone believes as firmly as Paul did in the conscience and religious instinct of the heathen. He says : ' A belief in a supreme, the Maker or Ruler of all things, and in the continued existence of departed spirits, is universal. The fact that His Son appeared among men and left His words in a book, always awakens attention. The primitive ^ The fullest consecutive statement of Livingstone's missionary creed is found in the last pages of The Zambesi and its Tributaries. i64 STEWART OF LOVEDALE African faith seems to be that there is one Almighty maker of heaven and earth. Their idea of moral evil differs in no respect from ours. The only new addition to their moral code is, that it is wrong to have more wives than one. They believe in a Pro- vidence, a Judge, and an Almighty King. All the Africans we have met with are as firmly persuaded of their future existence as of their present life. They regard the dead as living. And we have found none in whom the belief in the Supreme Being was not rooted. . . . Some begin to pray in secret to Jesus as soon as they hear of the white man's God, and, no doubt, are heard by Him, Who, like as a Father pitieth His children. As I glance over their deeds of generosity, recorded in my Journal, my heart glows with gratitude to them, and I hope and pray that God may spare me to make some return to them. . . . If this fails to interest them (the story of the Birth, Life, and Death of Jesus Christ) nothing else will succeed. . . . Unquestionably a great amount of goodness exists in the midst of all their evil.' He tells that he had seen a mighty hunter sink to the ground, melted into tears by the story of Christ. The Ethiopians who are not familiar with town- life among the Europeans, have a most pathetic sense of their inferiority in presence of the white men, and are therefore very apt to be influenced by missionaries who have won their confidence. ' Truly ye are gods,' they exclaim when they see some of the wonders of civilisation. ' God made the white man first, but did not love us black men,' The ambition of many is to be white. ' I really think that my face is becoming whiter,' said an Ethiopian, as he looked at the glass after several severe scour- ings in the hope of changing his skin. One day A PATHETIC CONFESSION 165 King Lewanika asked Coillard, ' Where do the descendants of Japheth dwell ? ' 'In Europe,' was the reply. ' And where are the descendants of Shem?' 'In Asia,' Coillard answered. 'You need not tell me,' the King added, 'that Ham was the father of Africa. I knew it long ago.' ' Why so, Lewanika?' Coillard asked. * Ah, my father, the curse.' All the great African missionaries have proved that the Ethiopian is capable of a splendid devotion to the white man in whom he can completely believe. The world knows by heart the story of Chuma and Susi, and how, after a year's terrible march to the coast, they brought the body of their beloved chief from Ilala to London. That story stands alone in history. Facts like these justify the belief that men who can display such an earthly allegiance may also come under leal-hearted allegiance to the Saviour of mankind. CHAPTER XVII THE MISSION \RY Consecration — The Salvability of the Heathen — Keen Sym- pathy — Evangelism — Practical Religion — Mr. D. A. Hunter's Testimony — The Missionary's Sacrifices — Love of Home. ' We seldom speak about missions: we live for them.' — A Moravian Lady, ' Whoever believes that a world-wide religion is possible is insane. ' — Celsus. ' The missionary seems to me the best and purest hero this century has produced.' — Joseph Thomson, the African Traveller . ' The fiery tongues of Pentecost, His symbols were that they should preach In every form of human speech, From continent to continent.' — Longfellow, ' Despairing of no man.' — Luke vi. 35 {J?. V. margin). Before all things and in all things Stewart was a n:iissionary. 'James Stewart, Missionary,' was the fitting inscription on his coffin, and also on the title- pages of many of his books, ' He completed my idea of a missionary,' writes one of his neighbours. The leading features of his missionary life are easily recognised. He was a missionary with his whole heart and soul. With the consent of all within him he believed 166 THE SECRET OF MISSIONARY SUCCESS 167 in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in its adaptations to the needs of all men. A happy certainty lay at the base of his faith, and gave him a message without a perhaps. He had also a full persuasion that God had called him to the work of Christ among the heathen. This missionary idea got into his heart in his teens, and circulated with his blood all through his life. It was his sacred mission-hunger that made him at once an Educa- tionalist, an Agriculturalist, a Physician, a Captain of Industries, and a Statesman. We find many men in him, and each of them had an exuberant vitality which was intensified by his missionary zeal. He did not lay only one line of rails along which he ran every train. A fervent apostolic Christianity was with him the one condition of missionary success. His deepest thoughts are revealed in such words as these : ' The religious life of the early Christians seems to have possessed some vitality or concentrated spiritual power that helped to spread Christianity, possibly because they believed intensely what they knew. Whatever it was, those Christians were successful as unofficial missionaries. ... Its force and expansive power depended at first, as it depends still on its internal condition — that is, on its spiritual life. . . . Rightly enough we say to the Missionary — spiritual work requires a spiritual man. The Church itself may need reminding that spiritual enterprises re- quire spiritual conditions of the very highest force, and while the latter are wanting, the success desired may also be wanting.' An essential article in his creed was the salvability of the pagan, and the correspondence of the Gospel with the deepest needs of all men. At the worst, 1 68 STEWART OF LOVED ALE the native was a debased immortal, recoverable, and worth saving,^ as Christ had conferred a wonderful dignity upon him. It is a noteworthy fact that nearly every avowal of Stewart's faith in his numer- ous writings has this missionary application. For the missionary idea was not an inference from his faith, but a piece of its essence. It resided in the very marrow of his divinity: it was the whole Christian life at its best and in action among the neediest. He held with Henry Martin that 'the spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions,' and that it is the mission of the whole Church to give the Gospel to the whole world. The report of his speech at the General Assembly of 1878 runs: 'He hoped to return to Africa shortly. He went because he believed in the soundness of prosecuting missions in Africa. He went heartily, because, despite of all doubts on the part of outsiders, and despite all the discredit attempted to be thrown on the cause as not having produced results, he still believed that there were great results. He believed with all his heart in the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to raise men everywhere, and certainly to raise Africans to light and liberty, to purity and truth. In presence of the heathen he felt like a great sculptor when he said to a block of marble, " What a godlike beauty thou hidest ! " He thought that the hope of the world lay in the ultimate triumph of Christ's Gospel. ^ Dr. Moffat tells that he was once asked to conduct worship in a Boer family. He suggested that the Kafir servants should be brought in. * Oh,' said the farmer, ' let us bring in also the baboons and the dogs.' Moffat read the words of the Syro-Phenician woman in Matthew xv. 27, ' Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.' 'Wait,' said the farmer, 'and I'll bring in all my Kafirs.' At the close the farmer said, ' You took a hard hammer, and you have broken a hard heart.' SYMPATHY WITH THE NATIVES 169 He believed, of course, in many other forces and factors in human progress, but in that most of all, because it alone transformed the whole man. If our modern civilisation was teaching us any lesson at all, it was teaching, as plainly as experience could, that the progress of science, the advancement of the material arts, and the spread of education, were all of themselves insufficient to satisfy man's heart — restless and insatiable as the sea itself. The plainest and saddest fact of the present day, as the result of our justly boasted nineteenth-century civilisation, was this, that individual happiness was not keeping pace with modern progress. It never would, and never could, till Christ with His great peace came to take possession of the individual heart.' We find in him that keen and unfailing sytnpathy with the natives which enables the missionary to find out the passes and avenues to the soul. One writer says that Lord Milner, after a few days spent at Lovedale, told him that Dr. Stewart was 'the biggest human in South Africa.' Probably the say- ing was meant to describe both Stewart's head and heart. In Dawn in the Dark Continent he thus reveals his attitude to the native : * The plight, mentally and spiritually, of those living under pagan- ism should appeal to our human as well as our Christian sympathy. Pity is not a primary mission- ary motive of the highest class, but it can well be joined to the highest motive, loyalty and love to Jesus Christ. Let me speak of the pagan rather than of paganism, so that we may pity rather than despise, condemn, or neglect him in his misery. The pagan is a man like ourselves. He has a conscience, and recognises, though on a lower plane and a narrower area and with much more confusion of I70 STEWART OF LOVEDALE thought, many distinctions between right and wrong which are acknowledged by us. He has a strong impression of an unseen and supernatural world close by. He has also impressions of the mystery of life, and the belief that there is something amiss both with the world and with himself, though he may not shape his thought into the words we use. He has also the belief in, and fear of, some power that is neither the power of man nor of nature, but something greater than either or both. ' We mistake altogether if we suppose that our fellow-men, whom we roughly classify by the hun- dred million as pagans or heathens, have no such impressions. As life advances such thoughts come. When young, these thoughts did not trouble him ; but later, he who was born in paganism, and has lived all his days in it, having nowhere else to go, becomes a melancholy man, and an object deserving our profoundest pity. He is in darkness ; wants light and cannot get it ; and tries to kindle a light of his own, even if it be the baleful light of pagan- ism. He feels that wrong has been done, that propitiation must be made ; and the transition to sacrifices of the most revolting kind is inevitable, easily explicable, and so far logical' Like Paul at Athens, Stewart admitted their good, and offered them better, the best of all. ' There is a way,' he writes, ' of approaching false religions with- out raising needless antagonism. Paul knew this when he spoke to the men at Athens.' 'For the coloured men and women of Africa,' writes one of his colleagues, 'he had a warmth of regard that no disappointments, big or little, sharp or lasting, could lessen.' Another writes : * It may be safely said that in native eyes Lovedale stands SUCCESSFUL EVANGELISM 171 alone, and that Dr. Stewart in his old age is regarded with an afifectionate awe which no other personality in South Africa commands. Their hearts went out to him in simple faith and trust as they have never gone to another man. He was their " father " in all the profound and gracious meanings of the word.' He was an evangelistic missionary. Though natur- ally conservative, he was unconventional, and he warmly welcomed all the new methods of evangel- ism. He was careful not to be occupied too much with the instrument — truth — and too little with the end — conversion. Special evangelistic missions had a prominent place in his programme. Lovedale has witnessed several revivals among the pupils, and no one rejoiced in them more than the Principal. Many of his best native helpers were the Fits du Reveil. After conducting two or three services on the Lord's Day, he would gladly spend a half-hour with some poor Kafir boy or girl, point- ing out to them the way of life and praying with them. I well remember the eagerness with which near his end he inquired about the Welsh revival, and expressed his regret that he could not attend an address upon it. In an address in London on Lovedale he said : * No year passes without some giving signs of having been the subjects of the great change, but the year 1874 was the most remarkable in the whole history of Lovedale ; and though some went back, many or most remained firm to their profession. About that time a hundred professed anxiety, though it would be unwise to say there were as many con- versions.' Concerning this work he wrote to Mrs. Stewart: 'I cannot tell you how delighted I nm 172 STEWART OF LOVEDALE with the news from Lovedale about the revival there. That is the crown of all success. There is no reason why this movement should not go on, and the simplest means is always the best. Why should a revival stop so long as there are unconverted souls about Lovedale? We must seek for more blessing still. Our old ideas on the subject are that, after a very short time, the meetings and other means should be discontinued. At home this time they have followed a different plan, and I think with good success.' When the call was made for native agents for Central Africa, fourteen volunteered ; and on this becoming known, a somewhat shrewd missionary living at a distance remarked : ' I now believe in the Lovedale revival. I did not before.' He disliked everything sensational in revivals, and that craving for confident spiritual statistics which seems to anticipate the decisions of the great day. He agreed with Moody, who, when asked how many converts he had made, replied : ' The Lord will count up the people. The Lamb's book of life is not in my keeping.' An evangelistic atmosphere pervaded Lovedale, and all in it felt that the chief end of the Institution was to bring the pupils to a known and whole- hearted decision for Christ. ' Hence,' one of his colleagues writes, ' his feeling of responsibility for ensuring that no student should drift through Love- dale without having the claims of Christ definitely and personally brought before him. The earnest words he spoke to individual students on these sub- jects v/ere sometimes few, but they left a deep impression.' He was well aware that the native's religious CHRISTIAN ETHICS 173 feelings were apt to be a reflection of the teacher's personaHty in the mirror of the native mind, and that, as in the early Church, sincere converts might easily carry remnants of their heathen ideas and habits into their Christian life. He never forgot that the African convert is often strong on the emotional, and weak on the ethical side. Their rightful place was always given to the everyday duties of life, and the pupils were warned against outbursts of barren emotion with their con- sequent relapses into indifference or disgust. They all knew that the supreme place was given to moral and spiritual character as the only guarantee to any real progress, and that the chief aim of the Institu- tion was to be a nursery for the evangelisation of Interior Africa. It was his theory that all missions are really one, and that all home and foreign missions are home to the Christian mind, while both are foreign to the secular ; and that interest in the heathen quickens the sense of need nearer home. He wrote: ' If I were not at work abroad, I should work among the neglected poor in the lanes of Glasgow. I often said so when I was at home two years ago.' He identified himself closely with the Wynd Mission in Glasgow, regarding it as an example of what he wished to do with Lovedale, and many of the agents, especially for Livingstonia, were drawn from the Wynd churches. Mr, D. A. Hunter, who has been for many years an honorary missionary at Lovedale, writes : — '•March 1908. ' Those who were accustomed to meet Dr. Stewart only during business hours may have been tempted to conclude that the business management of Love- 174 STEWART OF LOVE DALE dale bulked so largely with him as to relegate its more directly spiritual aims to a secondary place in his thoughts and endeavour. The daily correspond- ence of Lovedale is alone almost one man's work, and Dr. Stewart was never one to devolve on others that or any other portion of his work. 'With superficial evangelism, which appealed to transient emotions and ended in profession without a corresponding practice, he had little patience. Experience had shown him how hurtful it might be to true religion. But he believed most firmly in sound conversion ; he was eager that spiritual impressions should be followed up ; and he rejoiced when souls were being born again, and were begin- ning to show signs of the growth of the divine life within. 'Very early in the history of Lovedale, the senior pupils were taught to go out to the surrounding villages and kraals and pass on to others the truths they were themselves receiving.^ Reports of such work appear at least as early as 1873. ' It has been a custom to have twice in the year a week of evangelistic services at which an effort was made to bring to decision those who had been under systematic instruction in the truths of our faith. Dr. Stewart was eager that any impressions made at such services should be followed up by wise personal dealing. ' One of the hardest workers of his time, to whom it had been given to accomplish much towards the uplift of Africa and the establishment of God's kingdom on this continent, his entire confidence ^ Dr. Stewart used to meet with them on the Saturday evenings and study with them the subject for their addresses. THE SPIRITUAL ATMOSPHERE 175 seemed to rest on the work of Another. His attitude of faith and heart was : ' " Nothing in my hands I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling."' In a letter to Mr. Hunter in 1902, Stewart writes regarding a special mission in the Institution : — ' Mrs. Stewart mentions that about one hundred and twenty of the lads, and as many girls, have been in- fluenced by the movement. It is the best news that has come from Lovedale for twenty years, and I sincerely hope that a steady effort will be made to follow up what has been done, and that the spiritual atmosphere of the place will be greatly improved thereby, 'When I turn over the pages of Lovedale, Past and Present, my hands sometimes tremble, but only with this thought — whether with all these human souls that have passed through our hands, we have done all we should have done for their spiritual welfare, and whether many, by more individual deal- ing and more direct effort, might not have gone out from the place with an intenser spiritual life, to be a blessing to their countrymen whether as evangelists and missionaries or in some other capacity. ' Like the man recorded in the Book of Kings who was busy with this and that, and let his prisoner escape, we may have been busy with many things and let souls escape with less good than God meant they should have got, by sending them in His providence to us. * I think you could find a splendid field of work at Lovedale. It may not be exactly what you thought of, but I have noticed that when we take tasks or duties of an ordinary kind which God in 176 STEWART OF LOVED ALE His providence seems to offer us, He very soon after begins to widen these into spheres of work of which we little dreamt' His zeal seems never to have been chilled by the secularities and distractions inseparable from the management of so great an institution. There were always alongside of him the grossest and earthliest types of humanity, but he could see the beautiful statue in the unhewn block, and recognise God's image as readily in ebony as in ivory. It was natural for him to honour all men, and he bestowed upon the natives the highest possible honour by devoting his life to them. Everything about Lovedale was fitted to rescue the pupils from their self-despisings, and from the despisings of others, and to inspire them with great hopes. In his later years he had many things fitted to chill his zeal, but, like the great Apostle, his spirit was not soured by unhappy experi- ences. Men can do well only what they can do with joy, and this rule finds its supreme illustration in missions. He could not endure the idea that missionaries were to be pitied for the sacrifices they made. A member of his staff says : * One incident will live in my memory for all time. It occurred in the course of a brief address he gave once at the weekly staff prayer-meeting in the large hall at Lovedale. Some- thing that he had heard or read moved him to speak of the so-called sacrifices which men made when entering the mission-field. He flamed up at the idea, and spoke with a burning torrent of words which showed us — just for a moment — the liquid fires of devotion which he hid behind his reserve. As I write I can see, as though it were yesterday, that tall form swaying with noble passion. Sacri- GREAT SACRIFICES 177 fice ! What man or woman could speak of sacrifice in the face of Calvary ? What happiness or ambition or refinement had any one " given up " in the service of humanity to compare with the great sacrifice of Him who " emptied Himself and . . . took upon Himself the form of a servant?" It made some of us feel rather ashamed of our heroics, for we knew that if ever a man since Livingstone had a right to speak like that, it was Dr. Stewart.' In the same spirit James Chalmers of New Guinea said ; ' I do hope that we shall for ever wipe the word sacrifice as concerning what we do, from the missionary speech of New Guinea. Wherever there are men the missionaries are bound to go.' On a great occasion at Washington, Stewart said : ' The present problem of missions is how to rouse the Christian Church, ministers, members, and adherents to a sense of the magnitude of the work on hand, and of the individual responsibility of each and all within the Church in connection therewith. The means by which this better condition of the Church for its work abroad may be reached, seem to be in the direction of a deepened individual spiritual interest in the state of the heathen world. That means for ourselves individually more spiritual life, with further organisation and more ample support morally, if not materially at first, to the toiling Secretaries and Boards who do the adminis- trative work ; and a greater unity of action among the churches of any one denomination, so as to save money, prevent dissipation of effort and strength, and secure the power and momentum of combined effort.' It would be a mistake to suppose that he loved to roam. In a letter from Scotland to Mrs. Stewart M 178 STEWART OF LOVED ALE he says : ' Perhaps I am yielding to my weakness of settling down, as you know I am apt to do when I get a chance. If so, this should give you a further revelation as to my real disposition, and that it is not with my will entirely that I have moved about so much or may move about more. I require to be shot out like a shell from a mortar.' In a letter from Livingstonia to Mrs. Stewart, who had not heard from him for several weeks, he says : ' It is part of all true missionary work that it shall stir and dig and turn the spirit's soil, and out of all this comes more power for endurance, and wider ideas of work and effort. Still, for all that, I am truly sorry lest your health may have suffered.' Here is an extract of a Minute of the Kafrarian Synod, of which Dr. Stewart was a member : — '■July 1906. ' Great in heart and mind, it was not possible for him to confine his energy to one Church or one Institution. Accordingly he became associated with mission-work generally, and did much to bring about friendly relations between the representatives of different denominations, and to exhibit mission- work in the eyes of the natives as one work. He came to be regarded by statesmen and missionaries, as well as by the native people, as the chief repre- sentative of the Mission Cause in South Africa. ' Gifted with rare foresight, caution, and daring, he gave stability and solidity to all he undertook, and assisted largely in moulding the policy of the Church on wise and sound lines.' CHAPTER XVIII PREACHER AND PASTOR At Alice— The Preacher's Matter— Style— Spirit— The Fruits — The Rev. J. Knox Bokwe — The Soul-Friend. ' Theologus nascitur in Scripturis ' (The theologian is born in the Scriptures). — Francke s Motto. ' A true sermon has the heaven for its father, and the earth for its mother.' — Thohick. Preaching bulked so largely in Stewart's life, that it deserves a chapter for itself, in addition to what has been said about his probationership in Chapter IV. Some men have regarded their ordination for the foreign field as a reason why they should devote their energies only or chiefly to the heathen. To Stewart all Christian work was mission-work, and all mission-work was one. He was always ready to preach when able to do so. His genuine love of preaching was very remarkable in a man who was so overburdened with other duties. Several con- tributors to the memorial number of the Christian Express describe his services in the pulpit. ' For nearly twenty years he was minister of the Alice Presbyterian church, when that congregation was not able to call a minister of their own. This work he did without remuneration of any kind, and he preached regularly without a single break.' 170 i8o STEWART OF LOVED ALE ' The preparation of two sermons for each Sabbath day must have cost the already over-burdened missionary no small labour, yet no one ever heard him complain of the task he had undertaken. He preached in Alice in the forenoon and in Lovedale in the evening. ' For years he preached three sermons a week. In the seventies and eighties his pulpit ministra- tions were very impressive, and large congregations gathered whenever it was known that he was to preach. * If you saw the men from the outlying farms muster in force, you might be sure the doctor was going to preach, for he was pre-eminently the kind of virile preacher that men as men gladly listen to.' We may get a little nearer the preacher by noting some of the leading features of his preaching. His matter was thoroughly Biblical. An Evangelical of the Evangelicals, he kept close to the central doctrines and the great roots of the Christian faith, and he never grew tired of the simplicity that is in Christ. So far as we can learn, he was not one of those who win faith out of doubt. Even in his student days he seems not to have cultivated bridge- building between faith and unbelief. As he felt called to spend his life in the white harvest-field, not in the arena of controversy, his intensely practical turn of mind disposed him to husband all his energies for his chosen work. His study of the Bible and his spiritual experience gave him a full assurance of the truth of our religion, and he deemed him an effective defender of the faith who was an extender of it among the heathen. In this he agreed with Livingstone, who said shortly before THE DEATH-WARRANT OF DOUBT i8i his death, ' The spirit of missions is the spirit of our Master, the very genius of His religion. A diffusive philanthropy is Christianity itself. It requires perpetual propagation to attest its genuine- ness.' Both Livingstone and Stewart would have agreed with a learned Hindoo, who said to one of our missionaries, ' If I were a missionary I would not argue. I would give them the New Testament and say " Read that." ' Many great Christians have ignored religious con- troversies as Stewart did. The first Earl Cairns, once fully assured of the truth of Christianity, never afterwards handled it critically. Faraday says, 'There is no philosophy in my religion. I hope none of my hearers will in these matters listen to the thing called philosophy. That which is religious and that which is philosophical have ever been two distinct things.' His biographer adds, ' When he opened the door of his oratory, he closed the door of his laboratory.' And John Morley says of Gladstone, ' The fundamentals of Christian dogma are the only region in which Mr. Gladstone's opinions have no history' (i. 207). He had applied the closure to the discussion of the fundamentals. These great thinkers, if cross-questioned, would, no doubt, have fully acknowledged the claims of true philosophy and the value of reasoned defences of the faith, while they also believed that their individuality and God-given work had beckoned them into other spheres of Christian activity. Their example re- minds us that the Christian faith reposes upon an adequate foundation of its own, and that it does not need to borrow support from science or philosophy. Happy they who in an age like this can preserve 1 82 STEWART OF LOVED ALE unclouded serenity of mind, and invest at once in fruitful work all their capital of faith. Stewart skirted without crossing the Karoo and great Thirst- Land of unbelief. We may be sure that this was not due to sloth of mind, and that his orthodoxy was not truth at second-hand. Few intellects were more alert than his. But he converted doctrine into action, and action is usually the death- warrant of doubt about the fundamentals. From the first he wished his conviction to be attached to the great driving-wheels of modern life. His belief was that ' life and religion are one thing, or neither is anything.' He had thus scanty respect for those who are chiefly interested in the intellectual side of Christianity. One evening a friend was speaking of this class. ' Have you ever seen a pig eating plums ? ' Stewart asked (an African experi- ence, we suppose). ' You know, it takes the plum into its mouth, and squeezes it. The juice squirts out on each side, and the pig crunches the stone.' The Style. — It was simple, direct, and very plain, and in entire harmony with the man behind the sermons. He was unconventional — never wearing clerical dress, except in the pulpit and on special occasions. ' His reading of Scripture was very striking, and many are of opinion that he was most powerful and original in the brief remarks he often made on the passage read.' His voice had a fine musical timbre, unlike that of any other man, and in his best moods he was a master of accent in speech. It was always the accent of deep conviction. The texts were short and very practical, and he was free from mannerisms and a pulpit tone. He was not eloquent in the ordinary sense. He had passion in his thoughts, but not the passion that creates a gush THE PASTORAL HEART 183 and flow of exciting words, and thus he seldom * let himself go.' Sometimes his speech was disjointed. Now and again his sentences were like pistol-shots, after which he paused as if to see whether they had reached the mark. His temperament and style were those of a teacher rather than of a preacher. ' My first meeting with Dr. Stewart,' writes one of his colleagues/ was at Port Elizabeth in 1878. He had just arrived from Central Africa, and was on his way to Lovedale. Though suffering from the effects of fever, he was able to preach in the Presbyterian church next day. His presence in the pulpit was always very striking, and to us on this occasion it was so in a remarkable degree. With an impressive manner, and in his deep and rich voice, he read the first chapter of Genesis, with an effect on some of us that was almost overwhelming. Two, at any rate, of that audience will never forget it. He took as his text the words from the same chapter, " And God created man in His own image." The sermon was equally impressive, clear, deliberate, and telling.' His Spirit. — That is revealed in a letter written in his student days when he began to address meetings. ' I have learnt this at least, that to preach as we ought will require a much greater cultivation of acquaintance with Jesus Christ as a living Person, than I, at least, have been in the habit of doing.' From the first the instinct for souls was strong in him. No matter how busy he was, he had always a pastoral heart at leisure for the humblest. As God and his own conscience were theatre and spectators enough, he knew how to value obscure and unnoticed services. He delighted in that art of arts, the management of solitary individuals seeking spiritual guidance. The weal of a single soul seemed to i84 STEWART OF LOVEDALE interest him as deeply as the boldest of his enter- prises. In this he imitated his Master, nineteen of whose reported addresses were delivered to an audience of one. We add a few testimonies from the Christian Express : — ' His ministry to the sick and poor during those years is still spoken of. No matter what work he had on hand, the moment he heard of distress, or sick- ness, or death, he was there to comfort and to help. It was at such times that one seemed to get nearest to Dr. Stewart's heart. Sufifering of all kinds found in him a willing and waiting helper.' * During the last twenty years his ministrations to all who were in need — the sick, the troubled, the forlorn — never failed in regularity or in helpful- ness.' ' Even after he was relieved of the duties of pastor, he continued to visit the sick and the bereaved. Those visits were always welcome, and on such occasions the tenderness and sympathy of the man percolated through.' The kirk-session of the Presbyterian church at Alice adopted the following resolution after his death. ' For almost twenty years, as sole or chief pastor, he gave to it all that a faithful minister could give of thought, teaching, and sympathy, and for twenty subsequent years, under the pressure of many and various labours and anxieties, his care of its people never ceased, so that down to his last day of strength he never failed to visit or succour the sick, the dying, or the bereaved. His memory, his wisdom, his loving ministry, are esteemed in many hearts, and can never be forgotten.' The Fruits. — These must have been numerous, for often his arrow found its mark. The power of his A KAFIR CONVERT 185 sermons was largely in his unique personality. One who heard him often, wrote : ' It is to be hoped that some of his sermons will take to themselves a per- manent form. Nay, they have already a permanent and abiding form in the hearts of many hearers. His were the words that remained ; time seemed to be powerless to deal with them. We have met men who thus speak of Dr. Stewart : " I first saw him in . He preached then from the text . I shall never forget, so long as life lasts, his sermons." These are not single instances. Neither was the effect of his preaching confined to any particular class of men. He reached all classes, all conditions, for he preached the pure Gospel of our Lord. And thus to the unlettered native his message was as acceptable and as helpful as it was to the most learned of men.' The Rev. John Knox Bokwe, who was his private secretary for twenty years, writes : ' One day in the Alice Presbyterian church, Dr. Stewart preached on the text, " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." I was the only native African in the congregation. The words were so simple as to be understood by an uncouth Kafir lad of twelve, and they pierced through my heart. I was overcome, and felt that there and then I must seek the way of salvation. The matter did not end with the service. Conversations with Dr. Stewart led me to an understanding of the way of life, and I was admitted to the membership of the church. No Christian worker at Lovedale took more pains in winning souls to Jesus Christ, or less credit for his help in such cases. I can testify that many an African youth at Lovedale was awakened by the power of Dr. Stewart's preaching, encouraged by his ? i86 STEWART OF LOVEDALE prayers and advices in private, and guided by him into the way of salvation.' His legal adviser, in view of these facts, says : * No wonder that he fitted my highest conception of what a man and a Christian should be.' A real soul-friend, he knew how to carry the oil of gladness into the house of mourning. Very touching testimony is borne to his deep sympathy with, and affectionate devotion to, the dying. He was gentle among them, ' even as a nurse cherisheth her children,' and he convoyed them far in their journey through the final valley. CHAPTER XIX THE EDUCATIONALIST Pioneer — A Great Programme — Catholicity — Respect for Woman — Handmaids to Education — A Teacher of Teachers — The Chief End — The Rev. James Scott— H. C. Sloley, Esq. — Sir Godfrey Lagden — E. B. Sargent, Esq. ' The most potent force in the religious life of the South African native has, perhaps, been the Scotch Presbyterian Mission, which has always been educational in its character.' — Colquhoun s ' The Africander Land.' ' Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.' — Matthew Arnold. 'The main point in education is to get a relish of knowledge.' — Osier's ' ^quanimitas. ' ' He who is master of education is able to change the face of the world. ' — Leibnitz. ' Education without religion is the world's expedient for converting farthings into guineas by scouring.' — The Rev. J. Murker. Stewart was an enthusiastic pioneer of native education. To have a hand in fashioning young lives, was exceedingly attractive to him. He would not despair of teaching young barbarians among whom education was unknown and despised, and who cared only for their animal wants. Living in a transition period between the old and the new, he adapted his methods to both, and of the new he might justly have said, ' Quorum pars magna fui.' He had a sun-clear idea of his educational aims. He was intensely practical. For cram and goose- is? i88 STEWART OF LOVEDALE quill learning he never had any respect. The pro- blem with him was how the whole pupil could be trained for the whole of life, for God and man, for earth and heaven. In an address to the Love- dale Literary Society he thus defines the end of education. ' What is this long, costly process to produce as a result? This may be answered in one brief word — Action. ... A man is educated when he is fitted for the position he is intended by the Providence of God to fill. . . . Any educa- tion which is not practical in its character is of no real value to you at your present stage of civilisation.' His intense desire to serve Christ and his fellows rescued him from that ' malady of the ideal ' which has made many cultured men martyrs of disgust, and spoiled them for the humble tasks of daily life. It seemed to him worth his while to take the greatest pains with the rudest pupils, and study all the details of school life. He had received no training as a teacher, but enthusiasm and experience soon made him an expert. He was a good teacher because he was a learner to the very end, and took pains to give his pupils water from a running stream, and not from a stagnant pool. He carefully examined all methods of teaching, and he visited and sampled more than twenty educational establishments in America among the Indians and freed negroes. The result was that he ' preferred the African material to work upon.' John Knox Bokwe thus describes Stewart's aims ; ' He had a favourite maxim which he oft repeated — "The receiving of education should not be of the nature of a sponge which sucked everything for itself, but gave nothing out, nor should it resemble a A LIBERAL EDUCATION 189 bottomless hicket which kept nothing in." The sponge, he explained, represented selfishness, the opposite of which was self-denial and self-sacrifice. He was so fond of using these terms that his pupils nicknamed them "the doctor's jaw-breakers." To the native mind these ideas were new, and caused much discussion in the dormitories.' The education at Lovedale was very liberal^ for it ranged from the alphabet to theological classes. The aim was to equip the boys and girls for every sphere of civilised life. The programme embraced 'the rudiments of education for all, industrial train- ing for the many, and a higher education for the talented few.' In 1905, I found at Lovedale twenty- five Europeans on the Staff, among whom were four Masters of Arts, who represented the Universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Dublin. I said to the pupils that they had better opportunities of educa- tion than I had had, and both Dr. Stewart and Dr. Roberts made a similar statement regarding themselves. Many white pupils have been educated at Lovedale, and not a few of them now occupy very important posts in South Africa. The natives and the whites have the same education within their reach. One could scarcely imagine a more impressive proof of respect for the natives and faith in their elevation. It is fitted to deliver them from their self-despisings, and from the despisings of the whites. I saw Stewart's grandson in a class alongside of Kafir boys. The musical demonstrations of the pupils are a surprise to the visitor. Some of the better-off pupils go to Alice for lessons in music at their own cost, and some can play well on the piano. Dudley Kidd heard one of the pupils playing his own musical I90 STEWART OF LOVED ALE compositions on the piano. ' They were,' he adds, ' quite up to the level of our drawing-room songs. My race-prejudice certainly received a well-merited rebuff by the experience.' He admits that his severe criticisms of the Mission Schools do not apply to Lovedale. Had he been as prone to commend as to criticise, he might have said that all the methods he advocates have been employed at Lovedale during the last forty years. ' The African,' Stewart writes, ' is fond beyond measure of music, and seems to have an instinctive knowledge of harmony, and an extraordinary power of keeping time.' The Ethiopians are apt to be smit with the love of sacred song. Among them music is a potent means of civilisation, and even of grace. ' Music has great influence on those who have musical ears, and often leads to conversion ' {Livingstone' s Last Journals, ii, 201). In his estimate of the educational power of music, Stewart agreed with Plato, who said, ' The movement of sound, so as to reach the soul for the education of it in virtue (we know not how), we call music, under which the soul becomes gentle and pliable as metal in the fire.' ' Next to theology, I place sacred music,' wrote Luther ; and in his day the people sang them- selves into the Lutheran doctrine. Among missions, Lovedale was distinguished by its Catholicity. The pupils were of all colours, white and black, brown and yellow, with numberless intermediate hues. ' The education at Lovedale is open to Europeans,' Stewart writes. ' There is an average of twenty-five or thirty who come from a distance and board in the place. The education given is the attraction, as no difference is made in the classes. All colours mingle freely there, as force AN INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY igi of brain rather than colour of skin determines the position. The natives carry off their own share of the prizes. The Europeans sit in the same dining- hall, but at different tables, and they sleep in different dormitories. The objects gained by thus mixing the two races are these : — The natives have the advan- tage of contact with Europeans for the language and general competition. And many of the Europeans, I might say nearly all, gain a lasting sympathy with the natives and acquire an interest in missions. This is important, as prejudices between missionaries and colonists are unhappily too strong in some cases. ... I only know of one lad, among more than a thousand, who ever complained of having " Presby- terianism thrust down his throat." To succeed in doing even that would have been a feat, as it was extremely difficult to thrust or insinuate anything of a satisfactory kind into his head.' The visitor at Lovedale had many proofs of this catholicity. In one of the senior classes the Principal would say, ' Will the boys from Rhodesia stand up ? ' Two or three would rise. He would then call up the boys from Bechuanaland, Fingoland, Pondoland, Transvaal, Basutoland, Cape Colony, etc. When I was there, the question was asked, ' Are there any boys here who have not yet stood up ? ' Two responded. ' Where do you come from ? ' ' From Madagascar,' was the reply. Lovedale has had pupils from Lake Nyasa. King Lewanika sent two of his sons to Lovedale (with their attendants) last year, and wished to send also several of his young men, but there was no room for them. Cobden was called ' the international man ' ; Stewart was the international missionary. Respect for women was one of the greatest lessons 192 STEWART OF LOVEDALE in the Institution. Miss (now Dr.) Jane Waterston accompanied Stewart in 1867, as the first lady Prin- cipal of the Girls' Department. ' One special point of value about her work was that she succeeded in inspiring the girls with a spirit of unselfishness and activity, and of attachment to the place and the work.' She began with ten girls. Last year there were two hundred and four girls at Lovedale, and they paid in fees ^1235. Stewart thus describes his aims : * We have not taken these young women from their smoky hovels to spoil them with over-indulgence, or nurse them into fastidious dislike of their future fates. In the matter of food they abide generally by the simplicity of their native fare. . . . And as regards their training, we may fairly believe that great good will come out of the establishment of this training-school for young women. Cleanliness, industry, and application are some of the lower ends of the Institution, and the more common virtues which the inmates practise while they remain there, the training of their hearts and the conversion of their souls to God, are the higher and real aims of the place.' Miss Waterston adds : ' The aim with which I started was not to turn out school-girls but women, and with that aim in view I tried to give the Institution not so much the air of a school as of a pleasant home. I reasoned after this manner, that homes are what are wanted in Africa, and that the young women will never be able to make homes unless they understand and see what a home is. Another principle that I set out with was, that nothing was to be done for the girls that they could do for themselves, and that there was to be as little hired help as possible.' A SPLENDID OBJECT-LESSON 193 The girls learn more quickly than the boys, they work harder, do better work, and take more kindly to civilised ways. The visitor can scarcely believe that they are of the same race as their sisters at the Kraals. The boys had ever before their eyes a splendid object-lesson on the difference Christ has made in the position of woman, and in man's attitude to her. They daily saw girls who were as carefully educated as themselves, and by cultured European ladies who loved them and wished, in the spirit of Christ, to reinstate the native woman on her equal throne with the man. The climate round the boys was fitted to melt away their savage contempt for woman, as Arctic icebergs floating south are dis- solved in spring. Many were the handmaids to education created and employed at the Institution. The first Kafir newspaper was printed therein 1871. The Christian Express, originally the Kafir Express, was printed in English at Lovedale, and entirely by the pupils under European supervision. It powerfully pled the cause of natives and of missions. There was also another newspaper called The Lovedale News. The Lovedale Literary Society was very popular, and a welcome relaxation from school tasks. One of its aims was to create a healthy native public opinion on all important questions. The addresses of Dr. Stewart as President were great events among the pupils. They were carefully prepared and usually published in the Christian Express. The senior students had a Botanical class, and occasional Botanical excursions. They were taught Chemistry, and a lecture on Electricity led to the establishment of a Telegraph Office at Lovedale, which was entirely N 194 STEWART OF LOVEDALE manipulated by natives. They had also a good Library, Reading-room, and Book-store, a Mission- ary Society, a Christian Association, a Temperance Society, and a Society of Christian Endeavour. The garden and grounds had also an educative value for those who had come from the squalid surroundings of the native beehive hut. It was Stewart's hope that these would help to train what he defined ' the taste, or the imagination, or the sense of what is called Beauty.' The whole of Love- dale was meant to be an object-lesson to the native, and a real contribution to his liberal education. Speusippus, an old-world teacher, had the walls of his school covered with pictures suggesting glad- ness. Lovedale, within and without, was amply supplied with such pictures, most of them living. The educative value of play was also fully re- cognised. The Principal was a Teacher of Teachers, and a Leader of Leaders. His enthusiasm gave liveliness and persuasiveness to his ideas and instructions. Some thought that his pupils were over-educated, petted, and spoiled. But they were taught to do solid work, and many of them were trained to be pioneers of civilisation, pastors, missionaries, evan- gelists, teachers, and Government servants. All these were needed for the work among the natives, and the demand has always been greater than the supply. If native Christians are to be leaders of the people, they must have the best education they are capable of. The Normal School has sent forth native teachers to all parts of the land. The pro- portion of teachers trained at Lovedale may be from one-half to two-thirds of the whole in South Africa. It is admitted that education usually makes the SUCCESSFUL DISCIPLINE 195 native very conceited.^ The first shallow draughts of that spring intoxicate his brain, but drinking more deeply will by and by sober him as it sobers ourselves. No education can at once add all those subtle influences which are a priceless bequest from our centuries of civilised life. What was said of Jowett might have been said of Stewart, ' Once a man's tutor, always his tutor.' He captured several of his pupils and held them as willing captives. He was their standard of excel- lence, and in many respects they retained his impress as the wax retains the impress of the seal. I have received well-written letters from several of them, and in some cases I thought at the first glance that they were old letters of Stewart's. The Discipline appears to visitors to be excellent. It is not that enforced discipline which rouses the instinct of youthful contrariness and rebellion, and secures only an outward and forced obedience. The ' tawse ' and the sjambok are not permitted. The pupils have a court of their own at which offenders are tried by their peers under European guidance, and according to the rules of justice. Every year many applicants have to be turned away, and the fear of expulsion is a powerful motive. The appeal is made to their self-respect and gratitude. Dis- 1 * Do you not know me ? ' an educated native said to Coillard. ♦ I am the Zulu who converted Bishop Colenso.' The Kafirs describe a conceited scholar as 'big in the mouth,' and the whites speak of this conceit as 'educational measles.' When Stewart was asked whether such training did not tend to beget conceit, he replied, * We live in a dangerous world. We can give the education, but not the guarantee.' This rude uprising of unbalanced manhood should not surprise us. The native cannot be hustled through centuries of growth. Stewart most faithfully warned his students against the dangers which beset them. He was always afraid that some of them might improve the mind at the expense of the heart. 196 STEWART OF LOVED ALE cipHne thus becomes largely a matter of self-govern- ment, and their behaviour compares very favourably with that of our students at university functions. The pupils seem very happy and contented, as well they may, and the place has an air of seeming unconstraint. Education at Lovedale approached closely to Matthew Arnold's ideal ; it was ' an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.' The education there was largely atmospheric, and it entered into every part of the pupil's life. They lived every day in the climate of a genial Christian humanity. Around them was the kindling influence of their hero, the Founder, and his like-minded colleagues. The best truth and culture had become flesh and blood in their teachers. The atmosphere taught more than mere words could ; and they received the highest truths by genial infection and absorption. The soul of the teacher was in daily contact with the soul of the pupil. Stewart thus describes this peculiarity of Love- dale : ' Africans at first, and indeed at all stages, learn, as we all do, by what they see as well as by what they hear. Abstract truth, however compre- hensive, does not tell on them. At first it is little better to them than the higher mathematics to a child. But the life and activity of the missionary agents tell wonderfully without much formal speech. And the mission station should be to them an object-lesson in order, progress, cleanliness, and industry as well as religious teaching ; and be also a place where they may be always sure of kind treatment' The Principal had great patience with the erring, and often exercised his prerogative of mercy in FATHERLY KINDNESS 197 admitting some applicants who could not comply with the rules, and preventing the dismissal of others who had broken them. He hated putting away. He thus secured two pupils — William Koyi and Shadrach Mgunana — who ultimately volunteered for Livingstonia, and rendered very great services there. Stewart's generous kindness to the scholars, especially when sick, was one reason why so many flocked to Lovedale, and why the discipline was so good. To be reported to him for misconduct was considered a very great disgrace. ' I am a father,' he sometimes said, ' and I wish to treat these children entrusted to me as I should like my own children to be treated if they were under the care of strangers.' No wonder that he had the faculty of governing the young, and succeeded so thoroughly in gaining the confidence and affection of all his pupils. Lovedale has been widely accepted as a model. It is Stewart's judgment of the best method of civilising and Christianising the native, and it is one of the greatest educational missions in the world. Mackay of Uganda warmly commended it for adoption at Uganda. ' Lovedale and Blythswood in South Africa,' he says, ' I would mention as types already successful in no ordinary degree.' He pled for the planting of a similar institution at Uganda, ' which should train the most capable youths from Mengo to Khartoum.' Lovedale has found favour among those most devoted to spiritual work. This was secured by Stewart's zeal and wisdom. He always made it perfectly plain that the chief end of the Institution was to win souls to Christ. He says : ' The opposi- tion that once existed to educational methods did some mischief. It distracted attention, lessened the 198 STEWART OF LOVED ALE sympathies of many, and led others to believe that non-missionary and half-secular methods were being adopted. On this one of the presidents of Robert College stated : " These attacks, though not without excuse, were undoubtedly a mistake, and put back missionary work in the East a quarter of a century." . . . Scottish missions rather led the way than followed, for Dr. Duff was the first in India to advocate this educational method as an addition to the evangelistic' Stewart thus formulates his missionary creed and confession : ' We declare plainly that this Institute exists to teach the natives of Africa the religion of Jesus Christ. We care for books and tools, work- shops and class-rooms and field-work, only as means to open the mind and develop the character by discipline and industry, and as aids not merely to the more ready acceptance of the truths of the Bible, but to the practical exhibition of these truths in daily life. We try to fit young men and women to become useful and industrious citizens, and to become also missionaries of Christianity and civilisa- tion to other natives of Africa whom they may reach. We believe in conversion, and regard that as the best and highest result of our work. We believe in loyalty to Jesus Christ as the highest and the most inspiring missionary belief. We often fall below it, but we always begin again. Not all our work is fruitful or encouraging; it is occasionally, if not frequently, disappointing. But we hold on, thankful to God for the opportunity, and we leave the final results in His hands. We are responsible for the performance of duty, not for results.' Of industrial training he says : ' It will only do good, so long as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the life and soul EDUCATION WITHOUT RELIGION 199 of all the teaching given, the inspiration of the entire effort, and is retained as the keystone of the arch to give stability, permanence, and utility to the whole.' Speaking elsewhere of the essential aim of Lovedale, he says : 'The conversion of the individual soul to God is the result of highest value, is our greatest anxiety, and is regarded as the aim most worthy of effort, and to which all other efforts are properly and justifiably subordinate. We cannot say that, as regards all who come to the place, this end is secured, but it is steadily kept in view as that without which all others are necessarily temporary, and com- paratively limited and fruitless.' And again : ' The most clamant necessity is a revived spiritual life. The presence of the spirit of God among us, awaken- ing for the first time from the deadness of the natural state, or giving us that renewed quickening without which the work of grace in all is ever apt to languish, this would give us a fresh start, and be as the rain and dew of heaven on the parched earth. Could we but see this influence to any considerable and undoubted extent, it would make us thank God and take courage.' Our statesmen are now telling us that our troubles in India are due to an education which 'sharpens the intellect without forming the character,' and that education without sobriety readily becomes the handmaid of sedition. Stewart always declared that education without religion — such is the education in the Government Colleges in India — would produce bitter fruits. The Christian natives of India and Africa have, almost to a man, been on the side of order and peace when their heathen neighbours were in revolt. As an educationalist, Stewart lived thirty years before his time, and was a true prophet. The closing 200 STEWART OF LOVEDALE clause in the programme he drew up in 1867 con- tained the germ of the idea of a Native University. Thirty years ago he foretold such a growth of native education as we now witness. At the General Missionary Conference in London in 1878, he thus concluded his speech : — * The ultimate aim of Lovedale, or that to which it might grow, has not yet been stated. That aim is, that the place may become a Christian College, largely for missionary purposes at first, but after- wards to expand into something broader. The proposal has never been uttered before ; it may as well be uttered now in this Missionary Conference. It is this, that Lovedale or some such place may gradually develop into a Native University — Christian in its spirit, aims, and teaching. I wish it were possible to secure that by some great united effort of the different missionary bodies labouring in that country. ' The relation of Christian education to the general evangelisation of the world is utterly misunderstood by a large portion of the Christian public at home, who are the staunch supporters of missions. I do not say it is misunderstood by all, but by a large number. We shall never educate a native ministry by merely selecting a few for education. We shall never leave behind us Christian churches — self- supporting, and able to aid in the further advance of Christianity — if the bulk of their members is allowed to remain ignorant, unintelligent, and poor. And without education this must be the result even after a generation of missionary labour, in any part of Africa at least. The relation of Christian education to the permanence of missionary work is a problem requiring much consideration.' THE WHITE PUPILS OF LOVEDALE 201 Many of the white pupils of Lovedale now occupy- very influential positions, and have had a large share in the government of the country, into which they have carried Lovedale ideas. One of them, the Rev. James Scott of Impolweni, Natal, thus recalls his student days : — ' Though a master in different de- partments, it was in the class-room that to me Dr. Stewart seemed to shine. The enthusiasm which he could arouse was a revelation ; I have never seen any approach to it elsewhere. His treatment of his stu- dents was perfect. To him, no matter how ignorant they were, they were gentlemen whose feelings and opinions were worthy of due consideration. Speak- ing on any debateable subject, he would state his own views clearly and then ask the students to ex- press theirs. He was never above being put right, and if he did not feel able to answer a question, he would frankly say so, and at a later time would refer to the matter. Well do I remember when he opened the Chemistry class. The book we were to use was new to him, there having been a change in the Chemical notation. " Gentlemen," he said, " the book is new to me as well as to you. I dare say we will flounder through it together, and understand it before we are done with it." Certainly the " flound- ering through " opened up a new world to me, and put me in a position to look forward to, and expect, the wonderful advances which that subject is now making. . . . One of Dr. Stewart's peculiarities was his delight to see two or more men in earnest con- versation or argument. " That is the way," he would say, "to spread light. Free interchange of opinions is the finest thing in the world, to bring out truth and make men tolerant."' H. C. Sloley, Esq., a Member of the Native Affairs 202 STEWART OF LOVEDALE Commission and Resident Commissioner in Basuto- land, writes : — ' For the past twenty-five years there have been a number of boys from this Territory at Lovedale, availing themselves of the educational advantages of that Institution, Some of these scholars are partly supported by bursaries and grants from the Basutoland Government, and some are entirely supported by their parents. There is an excellent native training college for teachers in Basutoland, but to " go to Lovedale " has for many years seemed to the Basuto the thing to be desired in the way of education. ' The consequence is that there are in Basutoland a considerable number of young men who have been under Dr. Stewart's hands, who have always regarded him with respect and affection, and by whom his memory will ever be cherished and venerated.' Here is the testimony of Sir Godfrey Lagden, formerly Commissioner for Native Affairs in Basuto- land, and Chairman of the Native Affairs Commis- sion. He writes (April 2, 1908): — 'Many years before I became personally acquainted with Dr. Stewart, I had learnt to honour and respect his name by reason of the fine tribute paid to him and to his labours by many admiring friends of his, both olack and white, who were gratified to speak of him, and were always anxious to do so. Subsequently I came into closer association with him when we were arranging for some of our Basuto boys to go to the Institute, and at intervals I visited Lovedale. The impressions upon my mind are, that the broad and generous instincts of the late Dr. Stewart were re- sponsible in large measure for the formation of public opinion upon the subject of native education, AN UNCOMMON PERSONALITY 203 which made extraordinary advance during his career at Lovedale. It was not only that many thousands of natives received at his hands a practical training, but that the public was made to feel that the training was sound, and that the results would be beneficial to the community at large. ' I had the opportunity of watching the careers of many boys who went to Lovedale in a raw condition, and who, after schooling there, turned out to be efficient workmen, intelligent clerks, and above all, good reliable fellows. And they always spoke with affectionate remembrance of Dr. Stewart. ' I consider that the life, and example, and work of Dr. Stewart in South Africa should be regarded as of a monumental character.' E. B. Sargant, Esq., formerly Director of Education in the Transvaal, writes : — ' The late Dr. Stewart was one of the most uncommon and interesting person- alities I have ever met. The first and immediate impression was that of a man of real courtesy and distinction, with the tastes of a scholar and a gentle- man. In the second place, I felt myself in the presence of an administrator with an autocratic, somewhat imperious, habit of work. And finally, the impression which pervaded and dominated all the earlier impressions was of one who knew himself to be merely a servant, and whose one business in life it was to discharge that service in the most complete and self-forgetful manner. * His attitude towards others and their conceptions was no less interesting. He began by trying to ascertain their real motives. If satisfied on this head, he next seemed anxious about their degree of authority, their powers and status. Only in the third place did he seek to ascertain individual ideas. In 204 STEWART OF LOVEDALE fact, one of the earliest impressions he gave me was of an extraordinary impersonality in regard to ideas. This I take to be due to two causes. In the first place, he probably thought that ideas were mostly furnished to us from without, and that in the fullest sense they were due to inspiration. In the second place, all, or nearly all, the ideas in regard to native education which possessed those of us who had be- come recently interested in the subject, were already familiar to him, and his concern was chiefly as to the degree of precedence which should be given to each. ' His was a solitary, even a hawk-like nature, swooping with almost inconceivable rapidity upon wilful conceit or disingenuousness or intrigue, but quick to recognise unavoidable ignorance, and such faults as were merely faults of education. With these he dealt gently, as the teachers of men ever choose to deal. To want of faith, and to the attri- bution of unworthy motives to others, he showed himself an implacable judge. ' The first impression he made upon those who approached him was, therefore, probably not an im- pression of gentleness, patience, and benevolent neutrality. His quick penetration of motives, and dislike of all subterfuge, produced among the students, and not only among the students, a feeling akin to awe. It was only by degrees that one came to perceive that he recognised and valued every genuine expression of feeling in others, and that then when he was once convinced of the sincerity of motives, there was nothing more to fear. Those who loved him most loved him so, because they had most experience of him.' After the war Stewart was asked by the Board of Education in London to supply an account of the A STRIKING CONTRAST 205 systems of education among the natives of South Africa. His statement was published in the Blue Book of the Board. By placing the great Headmaster of Lovedale alongside of Dr. Arnold and Dr. Temple, the great Headmasters of Rugby, the contrast will help us rightly to estimate his contribution to the education of our race. He was a creator; they were adminis- trators and improvers : his pupils were savages ; theirs were highly educated, to begin with : he civilised the rudest ; they civilised a little more those who were already civilised : he was the creator and pro- vidence of his school, and had to find all the money for it ; they had very ample endowments : he had many other exacting duties ; they, while at Rugby, were only educators : he taught most of the arts and crafts of civilised life ; they were occupied solely with academic studies. CHAPTER XX THE AGRICULTURALIST The Best Farmhouse — The African Ideals — A Genius for Farming — Manual Labour — A Friend of Nature — An Avenue worthy of the Mansion. ' It is the practical Christian tutor — who can teach people to become Christians, can cure their diseases, construct dwellings, understand and exemplify agriculture, turn his hand to anything, like a sailor— that is wanted. Such a one, if he can be found, would become the saviour of Africa.' — H. M. Stanley. ' How much a missionary must know I How one must be Jack-of-all trades in a country where no trades are known, it is difficult to imagine unless on the spot.' — Mackay of Uganda. ' Fear God and work hard." — Livingstone's last Advice to the Scholars of Scotlatid. 'The best place in which to bring up a child is an honest farmhouse.' — John Locke, the Philosopher. ' If any one has a choice of birth and training, let him fix upon a farm- house.'— President M' Cosh of Princeton College. To the words of Locke and M'Cosh experience would add : provided the farm be not rack-rented, and the farmer's lot be midway between crushing poverty and enervating superfluity ; provided also that the family live in a genial Christian atmo- sphere, and cherish a due appreciation of educa- tion. Such homes have been the chief nurseries and storehouses of Scotland's intellectual and spiritual 208 THE GOSPEL OF LABOUR 207 power, and in such a home James Stewart spent his youth. It was the best university in the world for the work of his life. It developed his powers of endurance, which were to be so severely tested, and it gave him a knowledge of farming, without which Lovedale and his life must have been the poorer. He was then girded for his tasks, though he knew it not. He was a moral engineer and constructor of works for the uplift of the native. The aim was to raise his whole life, and to raise it very high. It was plain that this could not be done so long as the native scorned work. Stewart reverenced industry as the mother, nurse, and guardian of many virtues, while sloth converts the soul into the devil's forge. His creed on its earthward side was after Carlyle's heart. He believed thoroughly that work is the portion of every son of Adam ; that the best of it is, not the wages, but the work itself well done ; that honest work makes a man, and scamped work a scamp. It was part of his creed that true religion should secure the best use of a man's whole self, and the taking out of the human stuff and providential opportunities all that is in them. 'Africa is the land of the unemployed,' Henry Drummond says in his Tropical Africa. This saying is true only regarding the men. • What is the first commandment ? ' a Lovedale boy was asked. ' Thou shalt do no work,' was the reply. It was not only that agriculture is the stable base of a nation's prosperity, but there could be no true manhood or Christianity without cheerful and steady toil. The Africans of all tribes used to believe that all the manual labour should be done by the women, and that fighting, raiding, and hunting were the 2o8 STEWART OF LOVE DALE only manly occupations. Many of them still believe that. It is said that a magistrate once presented to Cetewayo, in the name of the Queen, a number of barrows. 'Why does the Queen send me those things ? ' he asked. * Does she not know that I have plenty of women ? ' The native's wealth consisted of cattle and women. All the cultivation of the fields was done by the women — many of them with infants on their backs — with heavy-headed, long- handled hoes. Trained to it almost from infancy, a woman can carry nearly twice as heavy a load as a man. One of the traveller's surprises in Africa is to see a woman carrying on her head, with ease and gracefulness, a pile of wood larger than her own body, and with which he dare not test his own physical powers. As the men could not hunt, or raid, or fight, their manhood was rapidly decaying. It was plain that they must exchange a pastoral for an agricultural life. These children of the Earth, the Sun, and the open air then greatly disliked mining. ' Why should a man be put under the ground,' they asked, 'before he is dead ? ' They regarded the mines with trem- bling and superstitious awe. At first they were horror-stricken and fled, as every noise underground echoed and reverberated in a most unearthly fashioa The natives have no word for peace ; but under the Pax Britannica the natives were rapidly in- creasing, and the lands reserved for them were well occupied. Slavery had taught the lesson of labour to the African in America, but the Africans in Africa still kept aloof from it. Stewart believed that Christianity touched nothing effectually unless it touched everything, and that sloth was a deadly sin. He was as hard on it as the writer of the Book THE POETRY OF AGRICULTURE 209 of Proverbs, holding that the idler is the devil's plaything. He thus resolved to press the attack on heathenism along the whole line, and especially to assail their hereditary scorn of manual labour. So long as that remained, the elevation of the race, and especially of woman, was impossible. In the Fingoes, to the east of Lovedale, he saw a tribe that had outstripped all their neighbours, because slavery had compelled them to toil for their masters. All these considerations urged him to do his best to fill the vacant native mind with the love of Christ and of honest work. * The reason and object of our industrial training,' Stewart wrote, ' are not the value of the labour, but the principle that Christianity and idleness are incompatible.' The farm-bred missionary was splendidly equipped for this task. A healthy, vigorous-minded boy on a farm gains a perfect knowledge of farming without tuition, effort, or even consciousness. This know- ledge seems to come to him by nature, and to get into his very blood. He absorbs it as he absorbs sunshine, and it is never lost. He is amused and surprised that any youth should need to be taught farming, and suspects that the young apprentice- farmer must be deficient in intellect. There was a wonderful peculiarity about Stewart's interest in farming and kindred work. It seems to have yielded him the joys of creating, and it proved that he had a genius for agriculture. Like Antaeus, he got fresh vigour from the touch of mother-earth, and he had a deep delight in all the bounties she yields to man. He was mindful of the fact that God first planted a garden, and charged man to • subdue the earth, and dress it' Probably Scotland has never had more than one probationer who, O 2IO STEWART OF LOVEDALE supplying a country pulpit for a few weeks, went into the neglected manse garden at 6 A.M. on Monday, and, coat off, with his own hands brought it back to cultivation and beauty after the toil of several days. With him, as with some of the ancients, husbandry seemed to be clothed with a certain sacredness. When praising a man, Stewart used to say : ' He knows how to take his coat off, and set to, himself.' The native's ignorance of agriculture was beyond belief. Even a man felt helpless in presence of that wonderful and complicated invention of the white man — a spade. He knew not how to grasp its handle, to put it into the ground, to turn over the soil. He turned it upside down, and seized the iron, as it was most likely not to give way under pressure. In the life of Schmidt, the first Protestant missionary to South Africa, there is a picture of him delving. The natives, with mouths agape and eyes enlarged, are holding up their hands in wonder, in presence of the white man's new witchcraft. In the early days, their Lovedale chief was the very man to train the pupils in manual labour, and change it from a shame into an honour. The Armada failed because its leader was not a seaman, and Lovedale would probably have failed on one of its sides if its leader had not been a wonderful agri- culturalist. He showed them how to do work by doing it with them. One day an influential party entered the Lovedale grounds, and found a white man and some black boys delving. ' Is Dr. Stewart at home ? ' one of the visitors asked the white delver. 'Yes,' was the reply. ' Could you tell us where we could find him ?' Drawing himself up, and leaning on his spade, he said, ' I am Dr. Stewart' Nothing was THE PLOUGH AS AN EDUCATOR 211 small in his eyes, if it had any relation to the chief end of his mission. His was the spirit of Gareth, who wrought all kind of service with the noble ease that graced the lowliest act in doing it, because it was done in Arthur's kitchen, and for Arthur's sake. The end ennobled the deed. The plough has been a great educator in teaching the men to work. The women never plough, and they consider it a disgrace to milk a cow. But they build the huts with great skill and speed, while the men attend to the cattle. It pained him to see a Kafir making an uneven furrow. He would throw off his coat and show him how to make it straight. He could not endure bungling work in any department. His practical thoroughness abhorred the leaving of a ragged edge. Major Malan, in recording a visit to Lovedale, says : ' Dr. Stewart tells me that in early life he studied farming, and could never understand why till he came here. Now he finds his knowledge invaluable. . . . Nothing but the best management, and his knowledge of farming and unusual capacity for superintendence, could keep it going on its present scale.' The Principal was a genuine friend of nature, and kept very close to it. It was a relief to him to escape from the works of man and delight himself with the patterns and colours of * the visible vesture of God.' His were the eye and the heart of the naturalist and the poet. What God had thought worth making, he thought worthy of loving study. His sympathy with nature and early love of botany remained with him through life. Believing also that God has made the world double, he prized these scriptures of earth, because they afforded a rich and 212 STEWART OF LOVED ALE never-failing harvest of beautiful and instructive figures. The poet's creed was his : ' For all that meets the bodily sense I deem Symbolical, one mighty alphabet For infant minds, and we in this low world Placed with our backs to bright reality, That we may learn with one unwounded ken The substance from its shadow.' His pupils were thus taught to keep near God in nature and trace His footprints in the objects around them. The savage looks on the world with the eyes of an ox. Though he can admire things made by man, he has no sense of nature, no appreciation of the wonders and beauties with which the world is stored. Even when converted, he often remains for some time blind to the glories of creation and dead to the pleasures they yield. In that state he cannot make much progress in knowledge, as it depends largely on curiosity and habits of observation. It was one of Stewart's avowed aims to foster taste, imagina- tion, and a sense of the beautiful. He thus hoped to foster in the rudest curiosity, observation, attention, and admiration, these instructresses of the opening mind. Dr. Mackay had a similar apprecia- tion of the refining influence of a keen love of nature. In his From Far Formosa (pp. 145, 176, 209) he tells that after the spiritual birth of his converts came the birth-hour of the sense of the beautiful. It was as if cataract had been removed from their eyes. They then had an eye and an ear for God's message in creation. Their faith in Christ touched to life their hitherto dormant senses. Even they could be taught that untidiness is unchristian, and that aesthetics is next to ethics. A MODEL FARM 213 The Lovedale grounds with their stately trees were an impressive object-lesson on the fruits of well- directed industry. The dale of the beautiful river Tyumie was a perfect wilderness when it was acquired by the mission. It is now one of the most beautiful spots in South Africa, a paradise won from the veldt, and a fitting symbol of the spiritual husbandry which aims at making the barren and desolate soil a very garden of the Lord. The pupil thus enters the Temple of Learning through the gate called Beautiful. All the Lovedale boys have to do thirteen hours of manual labour every week, chiefly in agriculture, but also in tree-planting, road-making, gardening, etc. A gold medal is given for the best spade-work. The garden was meant to be an educational model. Part of the mission farm had 2000 acres, of which 400 were arable. It is called Domira, from the name of the Glasgow residence of Mr. John Stephen, Stewart's brother-in-law, the donor of the land and for forty years a very generous supporter of the mission. The girls were daily trained in all the ordinary housewiferies. They also helped to keep the walks and grounds in good order. They had little gardens of their own, and prizes were given to those who kept them best. They were taught that they could not be Christians unless they were also workers and found delight in the exercise of their God-given powers. By all these means a fruitful love of labour was infused into the whole institution. The mission thus sought to slope and smooth at every step the incline by which young Ethiopia might rise to a nobler destiny, the Principal luring them on and leading the way. 214 STEWART OF LOVED ALE The Lovedale husbandman could claim fellowship with the Apostle who said, ' And we beseech you, brethren . . . that ye study (make it a point of honour, or the height of your ambition) to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you' (i Thess. iv. lo, II). CHAPTER XXI THE CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRIES ^ Sir George Grey — Squaring the Circle— A Hive of Industries — Printing and Bookbinding — Telegraphy — The Rev. Horace Waller — No Scamping. ' The great secret of life is work.' — Cecil Rhodes. 'As a man, Coillard had lived close to earth ; as a Christian, close to heaven.' — Coillard of the Zambesi. 'Africa may be for the Africans, but Africa will never be saved by the Africans only.' — Mackay of Uganda. ' Since it (Lovedale) is a fair type, almost an ideal type, of the industrial mission, it repays special study.' — Dr. Noble's 'Redemption of Africa' (A 565)- Stewart fully recognised that man cannot live by bread alone, and that he cannot live without bread. His ceaseless aim was to make Lovedale a real Alma Mater, a more bountiful mother than the average university is or can be. It was his high ambition to provide for all the needs of the native in body, mind, and soul. He did not wish him to be a learner for learning's sake, but to be a learner that he might be a doer, a maker, a lover of labour, and a man. Some hold that in undertaking work of this kind the Church has gone off the rails, and cannot ^ African Wastes Reclaimed, by Mr. Robert Young, gives valuable information on the subject. 216 2i6 STEWART OF LOVEDALE expect to make satisfactory progress. But the early Church relieved the poor by alms-giving, and surely the modern Church may relieve them by helping them to earn their own living. Sir George Grey, the great South African Pro- Consul,^ helped him to realise some of his aspira- tions. On his recommendation ;^3000 v^^as given by Government to Lovedale for industrial training, while various sums were given to other missions for the same purpose. After a few years' experiment the time came for the investigation of results. ' The consequence was that at several places these in- dustrial departments disappeared in a day, like ships foundered at sea. Lovedale, however, was able to hold steadily on its course.' In grateful recognition of his help, Stewart dedicated his Lovedale to Sir George Grey, ' Under whose administration and by whose aid the first steps were taken to teach the arts of civilised life to the native races of South Africa.' Stewart threw himself heart and soul into these efforts. He felt that head-work would do little for the native unless it were wedded to hand-work. In this the missionary was imitating the Carpenter of Nazareth, whose eighteen silent years in the work- shop have taught the world more than all its other teachers have done or could have done, the dignity of labour, and provided eternal inspiration for all who earn their bread in the sweat of the brow. He thus defined his secular gospel in the Christian Express : ' The gospel of work does not save souls, but it saves peoples. It is not a Christian maxim * He was a true friend of the missionaries. In 1890 he wrote : ' My heart is filled with gratitude to the missionaries who worked out so great and noble a success. I earnestly pray that God may still prosper the labours of such true friends of mankind.' THE NATIVE AT HOME 217 only, that they who do not work should not eat ; it is also in the end a law of nature and of nations. Lazy races die or decay. Races that work prosper on the earth. The British race, in all its greatest branches, is noted for its restless activity. Its life's motto is Work ! Work ! Work ! And its deepest contempt is reserved for those who will not thus exert themselves.' The natives then had no knowledge of either the making or the handling of tools, and they could almost as easily fly as draw a straight line. Their chief achievement was to build a beehive hut, and that was the work of the women. It was the easiest and cheapest way of building a house, for it gave a maximum of space for a minimum of toil, and it avoided the difficulty of managing corners. Ruskin says that the circle is the symbol of rest. In South Africa it certainly is the symbol of utter laziness and savagery. To the question, ' What are you doing?' the familiar answer of the native is: ' Oh, I am just staying, I am just sitting.' That has been his physical and intellectual attitude for untold ages. His favourite occupation is 'just sitting.' Like Voltaire's trees, he grows because he has nothing else to do. The Principal did his best to induce them to ' square the circle,' a feat which he found ' almost as difficult as the mathematical problem of similar designation.' The native pointed to the patterns in the heavens and asked : ' Are not the sun and moon circles ? Are they broken up into many pieces?' 'The Kafir hut is a hotbed of iniquity, and as long as such dwellings exist, such evils will continue to check the progress of the gospel ' — so v/rote the Rev. Tiyo Soga, who had been reared in 2i8 STEWART OF LOVEDALE one of these huts. Hence the necessity for, and moral value of, training in the handicrafts. Wagon- making was introduced and prospered. Lovedale wagons fetched the highest price in the market and bore the name in conspicuous letters. The intro- duction of steam power and machinery in other places injured this and some other branches of the industrial work. Stewart had arranged to remedy this defect, but the Church crisis in Scotland laid an arresting hand upon his plans. He did not indeed expect the industrial department to pay : his chief end in it, as in everything else, was to make men. He was dealing with a race as unprogressive as any known to us. They had developed no art of any kind, no writing, no philosophy, no money currency, no initiative, and they had lived very much like animals. Industrial training was essential to their uplifting. A technical building was erected, and the work- shops, with equipment, cost over two thousand pounds. It was then the best-equipped workshop in South Africa, and it had bench accommodation for seventy-two apprentices. Those admitted have now, after passing an examination, to serve a three years' apprenticeship under competent European teachers. Lengthened description of each department is not needful, as the beautiful pictorial illustrations will at once give an idea of the nature and extent of the work. After some delays, printing and bookbinding were begun. It was not easy to induce the natives to join this department, Kafir experience not showing how a man could live and be useful by arranging bits of lead in a row. Many tracts, pamphlets, THE MAKING OF BOOKS 219 newspapers, and books have been issued by the mission press. Among these are the first edition of Dr. Theal's History of South Africa; Dr. Kropt's Kafir-English Dictionary, the standard authority on the Kafir language ; the Kafir Hymn-book, of which many thousands have been sold ; Tiyo Soga's Kafir translation of the Pilgrim's Progress ; a series of Kafir Readers ; and the Christian Express. There is also a Book-store which has supplied the needs of the neighbourhood and the mission-field. A lady writes that this Book-store was one of the fairylands of her childhood, and that she spent her pocket-money in buying books there. Great was her delight to find out there how books were made. Dr. Theal, the Historiographer of Cape Colony, formerly a teacher at Lovedale, had charge of this department in its early days. He writes : ' There was no part of the mechanical work that Dr. Stewart had not made himself master of, little time as he had to devote to it. If it had been necessary, he could have set in type his own articles, imposed them, and worked them off on the press. He had not to do this, but the knowledge that he could have done it, if necessary, gave him additional power over the workers. . . . To even such humble work as this did Dr. Stewart give his attention, and he was more than once seen with a composing-stick in his hand, patiently showing a big black boy how the spacing ought to be done, and explaining to him the reason why. The result of such patient care was that many really good plain compositors were trained at Lovedale, though very few followed that calling after they left the Institution. Some of them be- came interpreters in the Government service, and so turned their knowledge to good account ; others 2 20 STEWART OF LOVED ALE directed their attention to different objects, and two of them are now ordained clergymen. ' In just the same way Stewart showed young men how to plough a straight furrow across a field, for he was offended with a crooked one ; and of the teaching staff at Lovedale, he was probably alone in his ability to do this. ' The time will come when volumes on history and many other subjects will be needed by the black people of South Africa in their own tongue, but that time is not yet. When it comes, the readers of the day may look back with gratitude to Dr. Stewart, for no other man has done so much to prepare their race for it.' In 1872 a branch office of the Electric Telegraph Company was opened at Lovedale, and it has proved self-supporting. Two native operators, the first pro- bably of their race who had been trained to the use of the instrument, were placed in charge. Many native boys trained there have been employed at Kim- berley, East London, and other towns. After three years' trial, the Government General Manager re- ported : ' It affords me pleasure to be able to state that from the day on which they entered on their duties up to the present, not so much as the shadow of a complaint has been urged against them.' A complete Post and Telegraph Office, with Money Order and Savings Bank, was established at Lovedale thirteen years ago. It is a recognised office of the Government. The industrial side of the mission embraces car- pentry, wagon - making, blacksmith work, brick- making, poultry-farming, bee-keeping, shoe-making, and the planting of trees. A good deal of work is also done by the lads in keeping in good order the IiNTEKlOR OF TLCUMCAL BUILDING AT LOVEDALI: I 111-; i:i 54, 55, 58- 60, 62-64, 67, 69, 83-85, 87, 124, 130, 152, 222, 279. Mrs., 37, 39, 41-4S, 50, 54, 55, 60, 69, 70. Livingstonia, 28, 34, 59, 76, 80, 125, 127, 141, 143, 147, 152. Lovedale, 70, 101-103, 105, 107, 109, 129, 141, 155, 156, 171, 172, 174, 176, 180, 189, 191, 193, 194, 196, 215, 220, 229, 248, 355. 362, 371, 376, 384, 385, 389, 403, 406, 413. Macarthur, J. S., 279. M'Cash, Dr. James, 227. Mackinnon, Sir William, 231. Macvicar, Dr. Neil, 228. Malan, Major, 133, 211, 248. Milner, Lord, 169, 249, 276, 280. 345. 369. 412. Moffat, Robert, 147. Mozambique, 60. Mzimba, Rev. P., 295, 296. Native Affairs Commissiom, 249, 273, 279, 285, 290, 291. Ngunane, Shadrack, 136. OvERTOUN, Lord, 144, 148. Overtoun Institution, 150, 152, 153 Rhodes, Cecil, 275, 278, 291, 375- Roberts, Dr., 189, 345, 394. Robertson, Rev. Dr., 14,240,241. Robinson, Captain, 403. Ross, Rev. Richard, 112, 118. Rothschild, Baron, 346. Sargant, E. B,, 203, 377, 412. Sarrazin, L. A. H., 100. Scott, Rev. Tm 201. Sharpe, .Sir Alfred, 151. Shire, 23, 72, 73, 75, 87,88, 130. Shupanga, 64, 65, 68, 69, 75. Soga, Tiyo, 321. Somerville, Rev. J. E., 345. Stephen, John, 125, 127, 213. Stevenson, James, 126, 127, 148. R. L.,253. Stewart, James, birth, 2 ; parents, 2, 3, 6; student, 9-26; step- mother, 18, 19 ; author, 24, 25 ; probationer, 27-32, sails for Africa, 39; sails from Cape Town, 50 ; meets Livingtone, 60 ; death of Mrs. Livingstone, 69 ; honorary member of the Geographical Society, 82 ; student of medicine, 94-100; marriage, loi ; children, 134, 340, 342, 346; at Lovedale, 102-111 ; founding Blythswood, 113-122; founding Living- stonia, 1 23- 141 ; as a mission- ary, 166-178; as a preacher and pastor, 179-186; as an educationalist, 187-205 ; as an agriculturalist, 206-214 5 a captain of industries, 215-221 ; a medical missionary, 222-230 ; pioneer of the East African Mission, 231-241 ; champion of missions ; 242-255 ; apostle of civilisation, 256-269; attitude to the natives, 273-286 ; attitude to the Ethiopian Church, 292- 299; Moderator, 300-311; author, 312-316 ; at home, 339- 349 ; man of action, 350-357 ; optimist, 356-366 ; closing years, 367-372; death, 373; inner life, 387-396 ; apprecia- tions, 397-405. INDEX 419 Stewart, Mrs., 126, 128, 171, 175, 177, 178, 235, 303, 339, 340, 342, 343, 382, 389- J., cousin, 6, 13. Stormont, Rev, D. D., 120. St. Andrews Students' Club, 20, 34- Tengo-Jabavu, J., 397. Theal, Dr., 219. Turner, Dr., 291. Union Free Church, Glasgow, 29. Universities' Mission, 65, 72. Vanderkemp, Dr., 222. Victoria Hospital, 227, 228. Wallace, Rev. Dr., 13, 22, 23. 93- Waller, Rev. Horace, 83, 124, 153, 221. Waterston, Dr. Jane, loi, 192, 378. White, James, of Overtoun, 148. Young, Edward D., 83, 88, 124, 129-131, 137. Young, Rev. D. Doig, 229. Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press Date Due n^^mm ■>/' JL ., / / 1 / i / f)